NanoSymbionts

By Joseph Philbrook

Long before Tom Coggerson became a biosymbiont or was even born there were nanosymbionts. This is the story of Jake Peterson. Who was the manager of a convenience store when he took his girlfriend, Cindy, camping at his old buddy's private campsite. Which was located off of a windy mountain road. They were supposed to spend the time reconnecting and working out the problems in their relationship. Unfortunately there was an emergency at the store which forced him to go back for most of their first night. On his way back to her he has a terrible accident when he tried to avoid hitting a man who suddenly fell into the road in front of Jake's truck. When Jake wakes up he finds himself being tended to on an exam table by the man he almost hit. Who says his name is Steve Fontane. Then Steve informs him that in order to save his life his body was infused with nanites and that the nanites had taken up permanent residence inside of him. Jake is quite distressed when he starts to believe that Steve is telling him the truth about the nanites. He is especially disturbed to learn that the nanite would soon be interfacing with his brain.

Jake becomes worried about how long he'd left his easily aroused girlfriend alone at his buddy Dave's campsite. He knew that the other people there were very sexually active and he hadn't come back when he'd said he would. Steve informs Jake that he'd used the information in Jake's wallet to find and hack Jake's cell phone. Which Jake had evidently left with his girlfriend. Then, since it was within range of his advanced security systems Steve had used insect sized security drones to search the area and find the woman Jake's phone identified as Cindy. It turned out that Cindy had been left alone a little too long and was currently having sex with a man who's image Jake recognized as his buddy Dave.

Steve informed Jake that his nanites had revitalized his body so completely that he should expect to deal with the rampant hormones of a teenager. He should also realize that it could take a long time before he will be able to properly communicate with them but that in the meantime the nanites would be affected by Jake's hormone fueled subconscious desires. Which would likely generate nano-pheromones which would affect every human female who happens to be near him. He also informs Jake that he happens to be at a clothing optional corporate retreat. That's really just a cover for Steve's secret underground base full of alien technology. He says that some of the female personnel wouldn't object to the orgies that Jake's nanites were likely to inspire. Then Steve makes a very good job offer.

In the days that followed Jake began a new lifestyle that included more sex than he'd ever had in his life. His nanites also helped him learn to use Steve's alien technology to visit other worlds where his very survival may depend on learning to master his nanites. His nanites help him to learn about the alien technology and culture almost as fast as the computer can feed the information to his brain. Even so he soon finds himself in trouble as he learns first hand about a threat to the entire galaxy. Which leads to his taking drastic action to save millions of planets, including Earth, from a terrible fate but in the process he gets branded as a dangerous renegade.

That's when Jake's troubles really begins as he becomes the enemy of the most powerful interstellar organization in the three currently surveyed galaxies. In order to extricate himself from his troubles he'll have to outsmart both all of his powerful new enemies and also most of his well meaning new friends. It's not long before his fondest wish is to be able to go back to the old life he left behind. The only real silver lining to his situation is the new potential he now has to live practically forever. Providing of course that he doesn't get himself killed in the process.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Joseph Philbrook
• Release date: Sep 27, 2017
• ISBN: 9781370689668

Joseph Philbrook

I'm a reader. I've always preferred reading a good book, to watching the movie. I spent most of my adult life, working at one unfulfilling job or another. While I dreamed of writing books instead. Lately I've decided to start living the dream.

Book preview

NanoSymbionts

By Joseph Philbrook

copyright 2020 Joseph A Philbrook III

Smashwords Edition

Revision 2

Smashwords Edition License Notes This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your enjoyment only, then please return to Smashwords.com or your favorite retailer and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

This is a work of fiction. All characters are fictional. Any resemblance of any of the characters to actual people, living or dead, is purely an unintended coincidence.

The following contains mature subject mater.

It's content has not been censored and may not be suitable for all readers.

The story is about a complex future. Where expensive highly technical solutions exist for nearly all diseases, including sexually transmitted ones. A future where some biological solutions have also been discovered. In both cases, the lack of medical consequences for promiscuous behavior, can eventually lead to a change in what is perceived as moral behavior.

The bawdry, often explicit, occasionally humorous and sometimes even erotic concepts found in this story are not the point of the story. But they are part of it.

To those offended by such content. You are hereby warned. It's in there!

Table of Contents

The following contains mature subject mater.

It's content has not been censored and may not be suitable for all readers.

Author's Preface

Dark Dreams...

A fond farewell

Chapter 1 the Crash.

Chapter 2 Campsite

Chapter 3 An Awakening

Chapter 4 An Explanation of sorts

Chapter 5 Back to camp

Chapter 6 Hillside

Chapter 7 After Diner

Chapter 8 Spacebound

Chapter 9 The Garage etc...

Chapter 10 XenDar

Chapter 11 A New Strength

Chapter 12 The People

Chapter 13 Authority

Chapter 14 A Walk In The Woods

Chapter 15 Something About Cindy's Makeover

Chapter 16 To A Backwater World We Go.

Chapter 17 Exercise

Chapter 18 Something Odd In The Sky Of A Strange Land

Chapter 19 The Ruins of XenDar

Chapter 20 The Gift of Wildernest

Chapter 21 Air Power Failure

Chapter 22 Long Distance Transport

Chapter 23 Girls on the prowl

Chapter 24 A Meeting With The Professor

Chapter 25 Saddle Sore

Chapter 26 Surprise Attack

Chapter 27 A Call For Help & A Frantic Reunion

Chapter 28 Into The Pit

Chapter 29 The Burning Sky

Chapter 30 Counter Attack

Chapter 31 Security And Other Lost Causes

Chapter 32 Hysteria

Chapter 33 Monsters

Chapter 34 A Small Spark Of Hope

Chapter 35 A Sad Return & A Hasty Departure

Chapter 36 Sorrow

Chapter 37 Summons

Chapter 38 The High Council

Chapter 39 Audience

Chapter 40 Departure

Chapter 41 Exile

Chapter 42 LosLand Revisited

Chapter 43 a shadow of hope

Chapter 44 the cave

Chapter 45 a rude awakening

Epilogue

Appendixes

About The Author

Galactic Standard Units of Measure

Author's notes

About The Names In This Book

Author's Preface

This is the 3rd E-book I've self-published via Smashwords. Yet in the chronology of the story it's the first book of the series. In fact it was actually written first. When I started it however, I had no idea I would be self-publishing my work as E-books. I also didn't have a clue how to write it properly. At the time my life was also in such turmoil that I couldn't be consistent in my attempt to write about the multiverse that evolved in my dreams of this book.

As a result the plot was broken in several places and it became an unpublishable mess. I should probably admit that lacking any formal training on how to write such a book, I didn't even have a clue how to punctuate it properly. Then when my life became less turbulent and I had the time to return to my writings I started an adult themed trilogy with the book titled ‘Biosymbionce’. Which was actually a continuation of this story. Some of which I drew upon in the form of memory recordings and dream sequences. Neither of which are, in my story, totally reliable.

So when I decided to rework this formerly unpublished backstory and release it as a free prequel to my trilogy before I begin writing my ‘trilogy's’ finale. I spent a lot of time cleaning up the grammatical and punctuation errors. I also fixed a few plot errors. So it is that I now recommend reading Nanosymbionce first. I mean it's free after all and the trilogy will make so much more sense if you read the prequel first. This is likely to be especially true of the finale... Which, unlike the first two books of the trilogy, will be written under the assumption that the reader has already read the prequel.

Dark Dreams...

The dream always started with something like this. But he never realized that fact while he was dreaming it...

Or was it the other way around. He was never really certain if this was the way the dream began, or rather if the last dream before waking, was always something like this just before he actually woke. He never could quite be sure. Either way though, it always felt like this.

A fond farewell

The guildsman began to wake from the protective hypersleep imposed by his cybernetic implants as soon as the temporal distortion field faded. It would have been nice to have permitted his nervous system to take a cyclet or two to gradually acclimate itself to the return of conscious thought but he was too good a pilot to risk it. He needed to be ready to act at once if anything went wrong. So he had his implants accelerate the process of waking up. Thus he was fully awake 0.003 subcyclets after the synthetic wormhole closed behind his ship. This of course, resulted in the headache that he always got when his implant forced his brain to wake up too fast.

He checked the display before him for any sign of trouble. All the indicators were green except of course for the power reserves which displayed 21% in amber. He quickly deployed the energy scavenging particle collectors and began harvesting power and particles from the local solar wind. He also checked his coordinates. He had arrived a considerable distance further out from the star than the prearranged rendezvous location called for. Which is to say that he had arrived precisely where he intended to. He was well aware that even the stripped down version of the guild stardrive that was installed on small scout ships like his didn't often miss it's target coordinates. However that close to the star's surface he hadn't wanted to risk it. So he had factored in a significant safety margin. He had also arrived far enough ahead of the appointed time to make the necessary corrections. He calculated that it would take four cycles to achieve the prearranged position, in the correct parking orbit.

He redirected a small but steady stream of particles to generate the thrust he needed. The guildsman had no need to check his calculations, His implant insured that he didn't make math errors. Nonetheless he checked his coordinates again to verify that the minute changes matched the results he expected. Then he settled in to wait. While he waited he thought about the disturbing news he carried. He also periodically rechecked his position and velocity, gradually reducing thrust as he approached the correct vector for the designated parking orbit.

Less than two subcyclets after the guildsman reduced the thrust to zero his view of the star field was suddenly distorted by the formation of another wormhole exit point. Then his friend's ship was there. It's initial relative speed and velocity when it exited the wormhole precisely matched the orbit he had only just achieved. He wasn't really surprised that his friend had managed to plot his wormhole so precisely. Had anyone else been piloting the incoming ship however, he would have been alarmed that the other ship had arrived in such close proximity that the magnetic fields generated by the docking clamps could complete the docking sequence without any help from the docking thrusters.

You never could resist a chance to show off your skill, he said when the airlock door cycled open.

And like I told you when we were just cadets, your skill is just as good as mine, the other guildsman replied. You just never dared to trust yourself enough to stop factoring in a safety margin.

The first guildsman shook his head.

Maybe so my friend, he said. But what would have happened if I hadn't had enough time to finish correcting my orbital position from where my safety margin put me?

The newcomer laughed.

I would be more concerned about the likelihood of the star we are orbiting having changed it's galactic orbit enough for my wormhole to funnel me into it's fiery embrace, he replied. You, I'm quite certain, would simply have arrived sufficiently early to make the corrections before I got here. In fact you've probably even had enough time to recharge your power cells by now.

The first guildsman conceded with a chuckle.

Actually, he said with a glance at his console. I'm only at 80% power. Then in a much more serious voice he added I've made contact with the professor and I'm afraid you were right about those upgrades that central command is pushing. He says that he is quite sure that the missing safeguards are intentional. What's more, he's under pressure to start implementing them on our group soon. There is one ray of hope however. He's been developing a new decentralized control system that should enable him to actually strengthen the safeguards for those of us ‘his’ team upgrades. In fact the only thing he's waiting for, is that he is still fine tuning it so that the internal vulnerabilities built into central command's design, will appear to be in place by any remote monitoring their likely to use. That way when they inevitably try to turn us all into mindless slaves, there may be enough of us still capable of free thought to make a difference.

So your actually going to let him upgrade your implant? his friend interrupted him in a sharply demanding tone of voice.

It's not like we're going to have much choice my friend, the first guildsman replied. We might know that central command's up to no good. But we can't prove it! Soon their upgrades will become mandatory. They will point at the risk we take of an enemy getting hold of our external control modules. They will make outlaws of any of us who refuse to be upgraded. We would be hunted down like animals. And when they catch us they would either simply remove our outdated implants or worse, they would preserve us alive but replace them with behavior control systems such as those imposed on the most dangerous of criminals.

His friend silenced him with a hand gesture. Then after a moment he explained.

In order to catch me, they will first have to find me, he said. No I shall have to renounce my allegiance to the guild and disappear. Won't you come with me?

The first guildsman sighed.

No, if I go into hiding I won't be able to help the professor make a difference, he replied. My choice is already made. Are you sure you won't join me in it?

No I will not, my choice is also made, the second guildsman began. It may be that the professor can pull this off the way you say. And maybe he won't build in some way to take control of his upgrades himself someday. But I'm not willing to entrust my free will to anybody besides me. Of you my friend, I ask only for your word that you won't help them find me.

Very well, you have my word, the first guildsman said. It saddens me to think that we shall not meet again my friend. But so long as my free will is intact, I'll not hunt you down for them. But if you ever do see me looking for you, then you will know that you were right and I'm no longer myself. If that should happen, you will need to terminate me before I find you. You would in that case, be doing me a favor. But for now I think it would be best if you wait until I leave to begin forming your wormhole. That way even my sensor logs won't show which direction you took.

The former guildsman simply stepped back into the airlock.

Farewell. I shall treasure the memory of our friendship, he said just before it closed.

As will I my friend, the guildsman barely had time to say. Then he repeated to himself after the door had sealed between them As will I...

The guildsman continued to charge power cells as he began climbing out of the star's gravity well. His thrusters were using power nearly as fast as his collectors could replenish it. So by the time he had both escape velocity and sufficient distance to safely open an inverse temporal dilation wormhole his power cells only had a 90% charge. His calculations indicated that it would be more than sufficient for the relatively short range star flight to the guild base where the professor would be waiting for him. So he opened the wormhole and disappeared from his friends scanners.

The former guildsman had to wait two cycles before he had enough power to generate his own wormhole. By then he had calculated his departure. He began to redirect a stream of particles as a form of thrust. It took him another two cycles to reach the minimum threshold velocity. At which point he activated his wormhole generator. As his ship entered the wormhole he felt it's inverse temporal dilatation field begin to take effect. He had plenty of time to think about his plan before his implant imposed hypersleep took full effect.

His exit point formed so close to the planet he had chosen that not even the guild's best long range scanners would be capable of detecting it from outside of the local solar system. His own scanners were good enough to have detected any guild ships inside the system. He didn't waste any time recharging his power cells. There was just enough energy for a powered grounding. He wasn't planning on leaving this backwater world. So he didn't much care how long it would take for his ship's power cells to recharge at the reduced energy levels that would be available to his collectors on the surface. It took much less energy to generate thrust by passing atmospheric molecules through the induction thrusters than it had to supply them with particles scavenged from the solar wind. Even so it took more power then he had anticipated to reach the ground. The weather patterns were producing extremely strong winds which buffeted his ship with sudden changes in intensity and direction that required power draining compensations from his thrusters.

There wasn't even enough power left to open the main cargo bay doors when he finally touched down with a bone jarring thump. So he used what little there was to initialize a stealth protocol program that would use what solar energy it could passively scavenge to recharge the ships systems. Meanwhile the ships systems would hibernate until there was enough power for the ship to properly conceal itself. Then satisfied that he had done all he could to reduce the chance of his presence here being detected, the former guildsman exited through the manually operated escape hatch.

Chapter 1 the Crash.

Steve walked quietly down the path, stopping occasionally to scan for traces of his quarry. He was fairly sure the cybernoid had passed this way. As good as they were at covering their tracks, they always left some short lived traces of the complex electromagnetic field patterns generated by their microfusion reactors. He was getting closer. He paused again, this time to check the status of his weapon systems. Steve didn't have much to worry about, his weapons were at least twice as good as the best the cybernoid was likely to have and his defense shield had a full charge.

Still, it was best to be cautious, So he asked his nanosymbiont to do a comprehensive perimeter scan. A moment later he began to exhale a stream of nanites which quickly transformed themselves into a hundred nano-scouts. A dozen of which embedded themselves in the outer perimeter of his shield's sensor field. While the majority could have flowed along it until the field intersected with the ground. Where they could have extracted the minerals and other materials needed to build their own insect sized robotic augmentation shells from the dirt and sand. That would have taken a cyclet or two however, which was time he didn't want to waste.

So instead Steve's nanosymbiont commanded some of the nano-morphic material Steve kept in his pockets to transform itself into the needed shells. Thus it took less than a subcyclet for the nano-scouts to begin using Steve's nano-net to request the energy they needed to charge their completed robo-shells. A small fraction of Steve's defense shield's charge was then beamed directly to the robo-shells. As soon as it had sufficient power, each wasplike robo-shell launched itself on a fast reconnaissance flight.

Almost immediately Steve's head was filled with alarm messages. It was a trap. There were at least two drone class cybernoids ahead of him and three more rapidly approaching from behind. Worse still, they were all starting to emit high energy radiation. This radiation would have been dangerous. Even if the majority of it wasn't composed of an energy field type, that was particularly disruptive to his nano-net. He was beginning to lose nano-scouts at an alarming rate. Worse still, his personal defense shield was quickly being overloaded. Steve was amazed and a little scared. This was all wrong. His shield was rated to handle more energy than even a dozen of the microfusion reactors that powered the cybernoids were supposed to be able to yield.

Suddenly Steve understood what was happening. These cybernoids were effectively committing suicide, just to get him. They must have bypassed all the safety circuitry and cranked their microfusion power plants up far beyond the designed power level. This could only result in catastrophic containment failures. They were all going to explode! He had to get out of here now! Unfortunately the converging energy fields had already disrupted his nano-net so severely that his nanosymbiont had gone offline, reducing his internal nanites to something only slightly better than a standard bio-enhancement nanite package.

He couldn't even use them to call for help. Not that it would have mattered much, there wasn't enough time left to arrange an extraction anyway. There was only one possible way out. He still had the experimental prototype of the portable sidereal portalizer he had been testing in his pocket. It would be very dangerous. The portable unit couldn't compensate for the slight physical differences in the landscape between this universe and the one on the other side of the sidereal rift that he was about to open. Also, with his nano-net down, he would have no way to check that the transdimensional coordinates were accurate. He could easily wind up inside of something solid.

It hadn't been designed to open a portal suitable for human transport anyway. That was beyond the scope of such a small unit. Rather he was trying to develop a reliable way to send a small messenger drone through. The size of the portal was unlikely to exceed an arm in diameter. Worse, the aperture it generated wouldn't be stable. He had yet to get one to stay open for more than half a subcyclet. As often as not, they lasted less that 0.01 subcyclets before collapsing. So the aperture would probably collapse while he was still in transition.

That thought made him shudder even as he pulled the device out of his pocket and began to manually punch in the sidereal coordinates he had been using for the tests. At least he was sure that the size, orbital position, and rotational velocity of the two planets were currently in sync. As he pressed the last button of the activation sequence Steve threw himself at the spot where the portal would form. Even as he felt the transdimensional rift begin envelope him, he also felt the resistance to his passage increase as the effective aperture shrank as it began to collapse but at that exact moment he also felt a shockwave of force slam into him, just hard enough to push him all the way through. Then suddenly he was falling.

***

Jake was almost too tired to drive. He gulped down the last of the nearly cold coffee from his oversized travel mug. He glanced up at the overcast sky wishing that the moon would come out. It would probably take him about another hour on these windy mountain roads to reach the campsite. He thought about pulling over at the next wide spot and taking a nap but Cindy had already been upset at the idea of his having to go in to work on the first night of their vacation. He hadn't liked it either but since he was the manager of the convenience store he worked at, he hadn't had much choice. His assistant manager, Jill, had called to say she slipped and twisted her ankle so she couldn't relieve Sam, who had already worked 12 hours. She had tried to call in a replacement but nobody was answering their phones.

So he had had to make the three hour drive to cover the evening shift. Or rather the last four hours of it. When the 3rd shift worker, Bill got there at half past eleven, he agreed to cover Jill's morning shift. Which would give Jill enough time to rework the schedule from home. By 1:45 am, Jake had been nearly halfway back to the campsite. Then the weather had turned a bit foggy and he'd had to slow down. Now at half past two it was merely overcast and he was in no mood for any more delays.

Suddenly there was a flash of light somewhere overhead and something fell onto the road in front of him. Then to his amazement, Jake saw a man starting to stand up in the middle of the road. There wasn't time to stop! There wasn't anything coming the other way however, so he tried to swerve around him. He almost made it. He missed the guy but he was still doing 30 when his left front tire slipped off the pavement and sunk into the soft shoulder. Where it hit something solid and the pickup truck spun around and then hurtled down the embankment into the woods.

Jake saw the tree just before he slammed into it. When the airbag deflated, he was at first only vaguely aware of an intense pain in his chest. Then he saw that a stout branch had poked through the windshield and the remains of the airbag. Then he realized that the branch was lodged inside his chest. He wondered why it didn't hurt more. Then everything started going black. The last thing he was aware of was hearing somebody yelling something that sounded obscene. Then he knew nothing at all.

Chapter 2 Campsite

Cindy was pissed off at Jake for going in to work. It was bad enough that he had talked her into going camping but he had had to leave in the middle of supper and then be gone all night! It wasn't fair, he knew how horny she got at night. Especially since she could hear them carrying on in the other tent. She thought about how Jake would feel when he got the cold shoulder treatment from her when he finally crawled in. It would serve him right. Though she doubted she'd ignore him for more than a couple of hours. She'd still be horny after all. She sure wasn't going to get any sleep listening to what was beginning to sound as if that free spirit Suzy had managed to join in the fun Arnie and Karen were so obviously having. ‘Damn it all Jake,’ she thought again, ‘where are you?’

She really did love him, even if she had stepped out on him a few times when he'd had to work the overnight shift. He'd been gone all night for a year and a half before he got promoted to store manager. She'd been so lonely all those nights that she had eventually decided that what Jake didn't know wouldn't hurt him. She'd been real careful to slip out to an out of town pickup spot she knew of, where nobody knew them. She'd even used a fake name so that if any of her one night stands ever told stories that somehow reached Jake's ears, he wouldn't know they were about her. Then even after the promotion, Jake had still felt obligated to do at least one overnight a week, sometimes two. So, after a couple weeks of that, she had decided it would serve him right and resumed her nights out.

‘But damn it all,’ she thought. ‘We're supposed to be using this vacation to reconnect and rekindle the romance. Shit, I've just gotta stop thinking about my nights out or I'm gonna get so hot that I'll wind up trying to join the party next door. It'd serve Jake right for leaving me alone tonight. But I'd never be able to keep him from finding out.’

The noises coming from the cabin style two room tent that Arnie and his wife Karen were sharing with her friend Suzy, showed no sign of ending any time soon. So Cindy decided to take a walk in the night air.

Cindy climbed out of her sleeping bag, pulled her warm woolen poncho over her head and left the dome tent. Which she was supposed to be sharing with Jake.

‘Jake is such an asshole,’ she thought. ‘For choosing his stupid job over being here when she needed him.’

Then she started down the nearest path leading out of the clearing where the tents had been pitched next to David's broke down VW camper bus. She hadn't even begun to think about going for a midnight swim until she heard the water trickling into David's private swimming hole up ahead. Then it occurred to her that she hadn't put her swim suit back on before she had left the tent.

That's when she realized the only thing she was wearing was the poncho she had grabbed when she left in such a hurry. The poncho did cover her well enough that even if somebody saw her, they wouldn't notice. Though the night air wasn't quite cool enough to keep her from starting to sweat, with the heat she had built up under the warm woolen garment by walking so briskly. Suddenly she wanted to cool off in the swimming hole so badly that she decided to skinny-dip. Who would see her after all.

She reached the swimming hole which was basically a bend in a brook that had been dug out with a backhoe, so that it would form a pool right where a smaller brook tricked down over a few well placed rocks on the far side of the pool, making a small enough waterfall that it was easy to sit in and enjoy the massage of the cold moving water. Cindy folded her poncho and set it on one of the rocks along the side of the path and dove in. As soon as her body adjusted to the chilly mountain steam Cindy swam over to the rock seat under the little falls. Soon she was sitting back letting the trickling water soothe away her tension. Well most of her tension. In spite of the coldness of the water, the idea that she was doing this naked, so soon after hearing some of her friends engaging in some kind of orgy made her remember how horny she was.

Just then there was a flash of light from the other side of the tree lined hill. The flash hadn't quite look like lightening but it would still have sent her scrambling out of the water. If only she hadn't been looking towards the trail when the flash of light showed her a very naked David Taylor walking towards the swimming hole. So instead of fleeing the water, Cindy quietly slipped off the partially submerged rock she was sitting on and sunk into the dark water. Opting to hide behind the other rocks placed around it. When Cindy was as out of sight as she could get. She risked a quick peek around the edge of the boulder she had chosen just in time to see David dive in, and quickly swim towards her hiding spot.

Cindy nervously realized that while she was well hidden from the beach at the end of the path, she had a nearly unobstructed view of David climbing up onto the ‘sitting rock’. As he had called it when he had first showed his swimming hole to them all this morning. Her only hope of avoiding detection lay in the darkness of the night. Along with the hope that he wouldn't peer too closely at the shadows of the rocks she was hiding in. At that moment the moon stopped playing hide and seek with the clouds and gave her a very clear view of David gently massaging his rigid manhood.

Cindy stopped thinking as the lust that had been building up all night took over. She could see that David's eyes were closed as he slowly stroked his organ. So she risked a closer look. His manhood looked a little shorter than Jake's nine inches but, she thought, it was a little bit thicker. It was his balls that got her attention however, they were huge. As she quietly got closer another detail caught her eye. David, unlike Jake, hadn't been circumcised.

David didn't see Cindy slowly approach. So he was completely surprised when his hand's down stroke was followed by a set of lips engulfing him. The sensation was so intense that it took less than a minute for his orgasm to begin. It wasn't until he was finished that he opened his eyes to see that it was his best friend's girl who had just given him such pleasure. For a split second he hesitated. Then he decided that ‘friend's woman’ or not, he believed in giving as good as he got. David slid into the water and lifted Cindy's body up onto the rock she had so recently been hiding behind.

Chapter 3 An Awakening

Steve was standing beside the bed when his patient started to regain consciousness. The stranger who had almost died trying not to run him over groaned again. It took no effort for Steve to remember the name on this man's drivers license. Nor any of the megabytes about him that he had quickly extracted from the local planetary ‘internet’. Then the man's eyes fluttered open.

Where the fuck am I? Jake demanded, as he looked at the unfamiliar room.

Your in my medical laboratory Mr Peterson, Steve replied. You've been in an accident. My name is Steve Fontane.

When Jake heard the word ‘accident’, he threw the blankets off and looked at his chest with a start. He couldn't see any trace of the terrible wound he expected to see. Nor for that matter, did he see any other signs of injury down the length of his body. He looked back up at Steve. Jake thought the man looked familiar.

Where's my cloths? he demanded.

Suddenly Jake realized why this ‘Steve’ looked so familiar.

Your that nut case that jumped in front of my truck! Jake yelled.

Fact is I fell, Steve calmly replied. I did not jump. But thank you for ‘not’ running me over.

Do you remember anything else about the accident Mr Peterson? Steve continued after a slight pause.

Jake didn't answer right away. Instead he absently rubbed his chest for a moment.

I'm not sure what I remember, he finally said.

Perhaps not Mr Peterson, Steve responded. But it seems you remember the tree in any event.

What tree is that? Jake said guardedly. And please stop calling me ‘Mr Peterson’!

Jake then? Steve asked with a smile. Then he continued without pause. You know very well what tree but you won't find any scar there or anywhere else on your body for that matter. Would you like to know why?

Not as much as I'd like to know where my cloths are, Jake said.

Your wallet, pocket knife and keys are in the draw beside the bed, Steve said. Your clothes were not salvageable I'm afraid. Then with a gesture towards a closed door on the other side of the room he continued. But there's something to wear hanging on the inside of that restroom door. I'll get you a replacement for the damaged butane lighter that was inside your shirt pocket. But not, I'm afraid, for the bag of weed that was with it. Steve paused a moment, then continued more gently. The reason you won't find any scars is that in order to save your life, I had to enhance your body's natural healing power with nano-technology.

After a few seconds while Jake just stared at him like he was crazy or something, Steve resumed talking.

If there had been more time I'd have used some customized medical nanites that you would never have had to even know about, he said. But you were injured much to badly for me to wait. So I used some of my personal nanites. Then something really rare happened. The nanites liked you enough to want to stay. So instead of just repairing the damage and returning to me, they transformed themselves to match your genetic and brainwave patterns.

Did you just say that you put some kind of fucking nanotech shit inside of me? Jake was suddenly yelling at Steve.

I don't mean to upset you Jake, Steve replied. But there wasn't any other way.

Now Jake was sure that this Steve was some kind of nut. Before he could decide what to do about it however, Steve gestured towards the open door behind him.

Let me show you! he suggested. You've recovered enough for walking and anyway it's just down the hall.

After a moment Jake decided to humor him long enough to find out what the hell was going on here. So he stood up and began to walk towards the door.

You can get dressed first if you'd like, Steve said. There are some female staff and a few guests out there. Course it's up to you, none of them actually get offended by nudity.

Without a word Jake changed course for the bathroom door. The clothes hanging on the inside of the door looked a lot like the blue jeans and V necked pocket tee outfit that he had been wearing but the fabric was much smoother and softer to the touch. Then he noticed that there weren't any labels. Jake didn't bother to go inside the bathroom to get dressed. He wanted to keep an eye on this Steve character. Besides it wasn't like the man hadn't already had a good look already.

These new cloths were surprisingly comfortable. As were the athletic shoes that looked a lot like his old pair, except that they were new. When he finished dressing, he walked around the bed and retrieved his wallet. Then after glancing at it's contents, he grabbed his pocket knife and keys. Then, while he put these in his pockets, Jake nodded at the other door.

After you! he said.

Without another word, Steve led him down a short carpeted hallway to a large, high ceilinged, mostly carpeted open space. Which was sparsely furnished with an assortment of expensive looking chairs and sofas arranged in such a way that afforded anyone seated with an excellent view of the most realistic indoor waterfall Jake had ever seen.

The big room was at least two floors tall. The sides having several doorways like the hallway he had just left. It also had what looked like a long second floor balcony that served as a walkway along either side. At one end there was a massive door that appeared to lead outside. It was the two story waterfall at the other end however, that really dominated the room. There was a safety rail around the small pool at the base of the falls. The turbulent water rapidly flowed into two channels on either side of the falls and was gone.

The rock face that the falls flowed down, looked so real that it was hard to believe you were indoors. Jake was so fascinated by the realistic appearance that he missed seeing which doorway Steve had just left the big room by. He was pretty sure that Steve had been on his way to the other side of the room when he had lost sight of him. That eliminated 5 of the of the 11 doorways that opened off the big room. He was sure Steve hadn't walked towards the water fall so that eliminated the backmost passageway. He didn't believe Steve had had enough time to get as far as the doorway by the main door. That would also rule out the main door itself. Which left three doorways, the one directly across from the one they had come in by and the next two heading towards the back of the big room.

In any case it didn't look like Steve was going to bother to come back to finish escorting him to what he wanted him to see. Jake didn't feel like standing there looking like an idiot in front of the half dozen people in the room. He'd noticed however, that two of the four women who were enjoying the fall's were not wearing upper garments. All four of the women were strikingly beautiful.

One dark skinned woman with black hair, who appeared to be perhaps 30 years old, was wearing a prim looking business pants suit. She was casually un-spooling a skein of some kind of yarn. While a younger looking fair skinned blond, wearing only a grass skirt, rolled the yarn into a ball. Just a little closer to the falls there was a redheaded man who looked to be about 20. Who was quietly reading some book. He was wearing cut off shorts and a loud multi-color tie-dyed tank top and a white armband with a black circle containing a white on black image of a waterfall flowing out of the front door of some kind of building. Jake was surprised at how well he could see the details on the armband.

Across the way there was a brunette of perhaps 25, who's only garment was a green pair of sweats. She was casually nursing a baby. There was a blond that looked about 25, with hair held in place by a black headband. She was wearing a black sleeveless one piece knee length dress with a short white apron. He watched her deftly set a tray with a sandwich and a wine glass full of some pinkish liquid on the table beside the woman with the baby. When she turned to walk away, Jake noticed that there was a white circle on the front of the headband that appeared to display a negative version of the same image as the one on the carrot top's armband.

Jake liked looking at the beautiful women but he wanted to figure out which way Steve had gone. He didn't feel like asking any of these complete strangers for directions. So on a hunch, Jake tried the doorway straight across. It opened to a short hall that ended in a T shaped intersection. Where he turned right without hesitating. A little ways down ‘that’ hall he found a recessed elevator door on the left side. Steve was leaning against it.

Took you long enough, he said with a grin.

Then Steve shifted his weight off the elevator door, pushing off with his elbow on the call button beside the door. The elevator opened immediately. Steve gestured Jake in first. The inside looked a lot like a stainless steel hospital elevator. Big enough for two stretchers with a door in the back as well as the front. Next to each door there was a standard elevator control panel with buttons for 3 numbered floors and one marked ‘B’. Beside each of the elevator control panels, there was a keypad with buttons like a touch tone telephone dial and a four inch display screen. It also had a small speaker grill. After an awkward moment while Jake waited for Steve to push a button or two, Steve gestured towards the buttons near the door behind Jake.

We're going downstairs, was all he said.

After a slight pause Jake decided that instead of pushing one of the standard elevator control buttons he would just punch in a number at random on the keypad and see what happened. When he reached for the buttons he was suddenly quite sure that he wanted to dial ‘*000#03*’. The elevator seemed to quiver slightly, the door closed, then the elevator suddenly lurched downwards. After several seconds it came to a stop and the backdoor opened onto a rock walled entrance chamber. Which lead to a spherical chamber with a flat gridwork platform forming a small circular floor with a diameter of about one tenth that of the sphere. The platform was about halfway between the bottom and the center of the sphere. It could be reached by a single catwalk that extended from the entrance chamber.

On the platform there were several large flat display screens held in various locations by multijointed support arms that were centrally mounted to the grid work about halfway between the outer edge and the center of the platform. Another such arm held a keyboard of some kind. It had about sixty keys with strange, yet somehow familiar, markings. Just above the top row of buttons there were 3 built in, thumb sized track balls. Just below the bottom row of marked buttons there were 3 sets of 3 unmarked round thumb sized buttons.

I noticed that you liked that waterfall display upstairs, Steve said. Why don't you see if you can call up a view of the real waterfall it portrays?

How? Jake demanded.

The same way you knew the keypad sequence to get here. Steve said.

But I just took a wild assed guess at that! Jake retorted. I've never even seen this kind of keyboard before. It's not marked in any language I'm familiar with... His voice trailed off as he became aware that the markings on this weird keyboard were starting to look very familiar.

But then it was almost like you remembered the number wasn't it? Steve asked with a chuckle.

Except I couldn't have remembered something I never knew before! Jake insisted.

True enough, Steve said. You didn't remember it, but your nanites did. Don't forget, they used to be some of mine. So they remember almost everything I currently knew just before they became yours. They will guide you to ‘remember’ what I know about how to use this control panel too. You just need to know what your looking for. If your looking for the original falls, you ‘will’ be able to call up the images. Try it and see.

This was crazy but Jake began to get a sickening feeling in the pit of his stomach. The idea that there might really be some kind of nanites interfacing with his brain frightened him but he didn't really believe the elevator sequence was pure chance. So he decided to play along with what he hoped was just a bad dream. He took a step toward the keyboard. The adjustable tray immediately moved, automatically positioning the keyboard to within his easy reach. He didn't even flinch. Somehow he had almost expected it would do something like that.

He tried to randomly tap a few keys but found that his fingers kept hitting what he was sure were the right keys. It took only a few seconds to tap out a sequence of 117 keystrokes. It suddenly occurred to him that he hadn't actually counted the keystrokes. This meant he didn't know how he knew it was exactly 117 keystrokes nor why it had seemed right to stop. When he did however, one of the larger flat display screens produced an almost three dimensional image of a waterfall cascading down the side of a large rock face in front of some kind of village composed of an assortment of grass huts.

He noticed that there were fifteen naked villagers scattered around the place. They looked human except that their skin was an unusual shade of deep blue and they were totally hairless... One female who appeared to be casually having sex with one of the males suddenly turned her head and seemed to look back through the view screen directly at them. Somehow Jake was sure that she knew they were watching. Then, when she smiled and winked in his direction, he got the distinct impression that she would like them to join with her in an exhibition of group sex. Then the male followed her gaze and looked their way. He didn't seam to be able to tell what she was looking at and suddenly ceased to care. The male villager's eyes glazed over as he began to empty himself deep within her.

Suddenly Jake slapped at the keyboard. He wanted to stop the show. His fingers tapped on three keys and the flat panel display abruptly turned gray. As did the narrow border which, until then, had had a dim red glow. Jake fought to gain control over the almost painful swelling in his crotch. Suddenly he realized that he had no idea how long he had left Cindy cooling her heals at Dave's campground.

Why did you disconnect us like that? Steve interrupted his train of thought. The sub-memory, should have been strong enough for you to realize that closing down the portal's core processor while that destination was in focus was a bad idea. Now restoring that particular destination's resonance value will be a nontrivial and time consuming computation.

Jake looked at Steve without answering for a few seconds. He also noticed that Steve had just as obviously been affected by the sensual scene he had just disconnected. Jake looked Steve in the eyes.

Yeah I guess I did know, he admitted. I kinda figured there was another way to get that blue chick off the screen. But I also had the distinct impression that it was possible to find a way to go there. And I found myself tempted to figure out how. I had to make sure I had a minute or two to think... How long have I been here? Damn it all! I have to call my lady! Where can I find a phone?

Steve sighed, then answered the first question first.

The accident was about 3 hours ago, he explained. If by your ‘lady’ you mean one Cindy Kincade, we traced her to a nearby private camp via your cell phone. It's within range of our surveillance system so while you were still unconscious, I used it to check on her. Your phone was in one of the tents. She wasn't. But since I'd already hacked her drivers license photo it was a simple mater to feed it to some surveillance-drones who soon found her. You really should look at the images before you call. Then with a slight gesture back towards the control panel. You can do them both with that.

Jake wasn't even surprised that his fingers knew how to dial up the Cell phone with the keyboard that was once again under his hands. Nor that he didn't have any problem getting it to produce a headset for a more private conversation. Even as it started to ring, he figured out how to find the security log with Cindy's name on it. The outline of the big display started to glow with a faint blue light and Cindy appeared on the screen. Her head was thrown back. So that her hair cascaded down the rock she was almost laying on and brushed the water that swept around it. She was naked and writhing beneath the attentions of a large man who's face was buried in her crotch. He couldn't see the man's face but he recognized him all the same.

This time, when he shut down the display he found something less severe than the total disconnection Steve had complained about a minute ago. Even as the deselected image faded the earpiece invited him to leave a message on his cell phone. Suddenly he wanted to know where Cindy was now. He didn't need any prodding from Steve to figure out how to find the insect sized surveillance-drone that was still monitoring Cindy. The screen came to life showing the inside of Dave's old camper where Cindy was sitting on Dave's lap...

Jake deselected the view and took off the headset.

I don't know about you, Steve said gently. But I'm heading for the jacuzzi room. Where I'll likely find one or more of the girls you saw upstairs. Any of whom would most likely be glad to help us with our obvious problems.

It took Jake a couple of seconds to make up his mind.

I might as well join you, he eventually said and followed Steve back upstairs.

They went through the doorway to the right of the indoor falls. Jake didn't hesitate to hang his cloths on one of the hooks that lined the hallway. He couldn't help but notice as Steve did the same, that the man was very well hung. As they walked through the doorway into the shower area at the end of the hall a multitude of shower heads automatically sprayed the sweat off them from many angles.

The jacuzzi in the next room was huge. It was nearly 4 ft deep in the central area, which contained both statues and fountains. The outer edges were lined with half a dozen booths. Each big enough for four people to sit intimately together in the gurgling waters. He saw that two of them were in use. In one to his left a girl was sitting in a guy's lap and in one on the right there were two girls talking.

As they entered the conversing beauties stepped down into the deeper water in the middle and quickly waded over to them. The taller of the two was a dark skinned black haired beauty with brown eyes. The shorter girl, a fair skinned blond with green eyes who was wearing a white headband spoke first.

Hi, I'm Erika, she said.

Jake recognized her as the girl he had seen wearing a dress and an apron.

I'm Jake, he replied.

About then the taller girl introduced herself.

My name's Sandra, she said. By the way, she pointed at the still occupied booth, Since they appear much too busy to introduce themselves, that's Linda over there with my Jess. Then she stepped closer and asked Do you mind?

Jake had no trouble figuring out what she was asking if he minded about. Because even as she said it she reached out and sensually caressed his balls.

Why would I mind? he asked as he suddenly realized that this hot blooded woman was the one who had been wearing a prim looking business suit.

I'm thinking that was a rhetorical question, Sandra replied. But seriously, we need to know which of us you'd like to do first?

At this point Steve interrupted the ladies.

I'm afraid I'm going to have to drag Jake out of here in about an hour girls, he said. So I think one of you will have to catch him another time

Spoilsport! Erika said.

Just so you know Jake, Steve explained. Sandra seams to be taking an unfair advantage here. Erika is a ‘house’ employee, as such she's allowed to ‘play’ if someone asks her to. But she is not allowed to actually suggest such things...

It's a hard choice, Jake admitted. But I don't think I've ever made it with a green eyed girl. Would you like to play, Erika?

She answered by grabbing his rigid tool and began pulling him towards a booth.

A heartbeat later Sandra was doing the same thing to Steve, calling out over her shoulder, I want a rain check Jake.

Chapter 4 An Explanation of sorts

Jake was sitting in a very comfortable chair across from the desk in Steve's expensive looking office. He was having a hard time accepting some of the things Steve was explaining to him. Even if he was beginning to believe that Steve was essentially telling him the truth, though he doubted it was the whole truth. As it was however, it was more than he wanted to know.

OK Jake, Steve had started by saying. I know you have some questions you'd like me to answer. There are also a few things you really need to know. So if you'll let me have my say for the next 20 minutes or so, I think you'll find many of your questions will be answered. Then if you like, I'll answer as much of what's left as I can... Shall I continue?

When Jake nodded, Steve leaned his chair back and swung his feet up onto the wooden desk. Then he looked Jake squarely in the eyes and started talking.

First I think I'd better start by explaining a bit about those ‘memories’ of mine stored in your nanites, he said. "They can help you with useful scraps of information, such as passwords and control sequences. Such things they can already let trickle into your short term memory as you need them.

They can also provide a nearly physical feedback to your whole body's nervous system with which they can quickly teach you every physical skill I currently have. For instance, it took me months of practice to master throwing darts until I could reliably pin a fly to the wall from across the room. You should be able to develop the same skill with less than a dozen practice throws.

Soon your nanites should be able to offer you some kind of report, that correlates data from my memories with current data sources on any subject you ask. The form of that report will be tailored to what works best for you. They will work with you to develop a personal communication interface. In my case it's a lot like having another ear they can talk to. And a particular way that I subvocalize instructions to them. Some prefer something more like an internal television.

They won't however be able to restore my actual experiences to your memory and it's a good thing they can't. That kind of memory is very complex and is actually stored in many small pieces scattered in various parts of the brain. Your brain would have made different associations with which to store away the memory. There would be so many little differences between the way my memory was stored and how your brain would retrieve it. That restoring them, as if they were your own, would eventually unbalance your mind. Thus your nanites simply won't do it.

You see they liked your mind enough to bond with it. So now they actually depend on your personality being intact. They use an analysis of it along with your genetic code as part of an encryption key that will eventually let them network themselves into a secure artificial intelligence. They already feel your emotions. They like it best when you feel happy. They want your mind to remain healthy enough to make ‘happy’ possible. Steve paused for a moment before he continued. What I told you is true of my direct memories. Though you should be aware that if a properly prepared report was extracted from my memories. Then your nanites could safely import that.

In time your nanites will be able to enhance your own memory with a form of total recall, that will go far beyond what might reasonably be expected from someone who claims to have a photographic memory. Even now it is already certain that you should never again have to look up the same piece of information twice."

Steve spent the next 10 minutes telling Jake several things he didn't feel much like listening to. Yet, Jake did sense that he was absorbing the details better than he had ever been able to learn anything before. Somehow he could sense that Steve was telling the truth as he saw it. He didn't like all of what he had heard. He hoped Steve's description wasn't as accurate as Steve believed it was. Though he did like the idea that the nanites would most likely prevent most insects from ever actually biting or stinging him. Steve paused for a second after explaining that it could take Jake years to fully develop the ability to consciously control his nanites, but that in the mean time they would never stop trying to serve him.

You've just become a member of a very exclusive club you know Jake, Steve was saying. Those few lucky enough to even be augmented with our nanites tend to live very long healthy lives. And your nanites are far more capable of protecting you than any of the varieties used for mere augmentation. You now have the potential for a virtually ‘endless life’.

Why is it only a lucky few then? Jake asked. I mean if these nanites are so good, why not share the wealth?

Steve thought a moment before he replied.

Well to start with it takes a truly sentient network to properly maintain and manage the nanites we use for augmentation, he explained. "Our alpha class nano-nets are good but there are limits to how many of our friends, relations and other associates any one of us can keep fully augmented at any one time.

Then of course there are some severe restrictions imposed by the nanites themselves about the qualifications for someone to become the host of a truly sentient nano-network. It's a very rare thing for them to find a mind that they think they can keep interested in bothering to live long enough. For the resulting nanosymbiont's life to last long enough to be worth it's having to pass away with us if we should someday tire of living.

Another sad fact is that we can't even provide everyone with a long term supply of our medical nanite packs. The cost of doing so with even just our standard medical nanites would be so high that not even the guild has the resources for it. What's more we can't simply give away the technology for people to make their own nanites. In the wrong hands, the technology behind it is far too dangerous. It'd be like giving nuclear weapons to cavemen.

So you see Jake, no mater how much we might