Chapter 11
CHAPTER ELEVEN
“Janitorial staff.” It’s not a question so much as a confused statement. I don’t think there’s a universe in which I could have expected that. “You know I’m an expert in human technology shit, right?”
Lora rattles positively.
Before he can do much more than that, I add, “Why did you need to consult Dr. Randy, and why did he think I would want to clean?” I wave my hand around my apartment, which is clean, but the important thing is the robotic vacuum, and I point directly at Jefferson.
“If I had a robot for every chore, I would never clean.”
Lora smiles, and immediately my heart flutters and anticipation grows in my chest. “Dr. Randy pointed out the opportunity for solitude in your work without isolation from meaningful contribution. Let me educate you. I believe I chose the right job for you.”
I mean, I have been curious about what it’s like to be reeducated after Bee’s experience, and at least this way I won’t have any meaningful objections to being a janitor. “Alright, Lora. Hit me with it.”
Lora pulls out his tool, which looks tiny in his hand, but if I grabbed it, it’d be huge for me. Maybe the size of a hand held drill—the heavy duty kind that you need to be strong just to pick up. He points the go-end at me and…
This feels like a VR sim except instead of getting vertigo because I can’t adjust to the view, it’s real enough to fool my eyes and brain. I’m standing in my living room, and I’m aware of myself out there, but I’m also standing in a blank white room with nothing but a console in front of me.
“It’s curious that almost all of the humans residing on this continent choose a white room like this for their virtual setting.
” Lora’s voice doesn’t startle me at all.
In fact, I seem to be experiencing this whole simulation without my emotional feedback.
Normally his voice gives me a little bit of a thrill. Not this time.
“Why do I feel disconnected from my emotions?” I question, having a vague sort of mental but not emotional worry about not feeling my feelings.
“Your endocrine system isn’t inside here. Your body will feel your emotional feedback, but the virtual setting doesn’t include the support for full body functionality. We discovered that educating people is easier if their emotional feedback isn’t available to them until after.”
I turn, studying his virtual form as it appears and starts filling in slowly. His red eyes peer at me, but the real Lora has black eyes… and now they’re black. Weird. “What just happened? Your eye color went from red to black.”
Lora’s arched brows rise on his forehead, and I finally notice that he’s not as big in here as he is out… no never mind. He’s the right size now.
“Your mind is filling in the details,” he explains. “We are in your mind. You are in your mind and a virtual representation of me is here with you. I am not here as such; what you are experiencing is a digital mirror of me. I won’t know what happens in your virtual simulation when you wake up.”
Makes sense. Sort of.
I turn my attention to the console. “What does this do?”
“Press the big red button,” Lora suggests, and a big red button appears ripe for the pressing.
It reminds me of that meme. “Learn what your new job is” but “you surrender to the alien invasion.”
Meh. I’ve already surrendered.
I push the big red button, and a tiny little robot pops up from the console and gives me a little wave with its front pincher arm.
“Hello there. What are you?” I might be using the same baby voice I use with Bee’s dog, but I would never admit that aloud.
Another voice joins me, and this one sounds a lot like a training module voice in the 1950s era style except remastered and digitized for the modern trainee.
“This is bot model 7907. It is designed for and tasked with the sterilization of medical environments. As a janitor, you will assign bots like this one to tasks and oversee their maintenance and system upgrades. In this education module, you will learn everything you need to know to work with these AI bots…”
So school has started.
Cool. I’m here for bot-driven sanitation services. Now, how do I get a couple of these for my residence?
***
Time really does lose meaning in the education VR.
It feels like I took a couple of weeks to get competent with the robotic hardware and about eight months of intensive training for the software.
I could confidently build my own AI at this point, and one of the last projects the module required me to do was exactly that.
Now, I’ve graduated from the training simulation, and Lora’s smiling at me, holding out a little bouquet of multicolored roses. “Well, done, Ollie. You’ve graduated.”
I take the flowers from him, and knowing that this isn’t real doesn’t really change that I think the gesture is sweet.
I would feel happy, but emotional feedback isn’t part of the training sim, so I just have to settle for knowing that I am happy with getting flowers from him.
“Shouldn’t I be back in the real world then? ” I ask curiously.
Lora nods. “Yes, you will very quickly return to your body, but first you must review your memories of the events of the last few real time hours to remind your brain that only a few minutes have passed while you were training.”
“Oh, right.” That makes sense.
The VR replays the hours of my life before getting educated, and I watch in fascination while my brain remembers all this with the same clarity as if it happened just moments ago. I guess it sort of did.
In my memory, Lora reaches out to finger my robe, and I see something I don’t think I really caught the first time.
The look in his eyes is reverent. I can’t even misinterpret it.
If I saw that look on the face of anyone looking at my cousin, I’d spend the next week teasing her about her not so secret admirer.
“Oh my god, you like me.” The words erupt out of me, and if I was capable of being startled, I would be by the sound of my own voice.
“Yes, of course,” Lora’s VR sim agrees.
“No, I mean, you like-like me. Romantically.”
Lora’s sim chuckles softly, crouching behind me as I watch our interaction again because it’s going to be a core memory for me forever. “Yes, of course,” he agrees again, pulling me against him.
“Oh,” I whisper as the replay ends.
I blink, disoriented for a moment as Lora appears in front of me and I lose the sensation of him at my back.
“Whoa,” I breathe, Lora reaches out to steady me. I grip a strap on his uniform as he wraps his hands around me. All the way around me. Like a belt. A flush of arousal just about takes me out, but Lora has his hands on me, so I don’t fall. “I fucking love being tiny in your arms.”
I probably shouldn’t have said that. It’s not that the words are problematic. It’s the breathy and obviously aroused way it comes out that might give me away.
Lora pulls me in close, hugging me to his body as he stands, alleviating me of the need for balance.
“I find your size intensely enjoyable as well,” he agrees, positioning my ass in the crook of his arm as he walks us over to the sofa designed for people of his immense stature.
“Did your education module satisfy your expectations?”
I settle in on his lap as soon as he’s seated, but instead of cuddling in like I usually do when we’re watching TV, I give myself space enough to look him in the face as we talk. “Yes. I’m reasonably sure that I’ll be able to run, maintain, and improve the janitorial service at the hospital.”
Lora rattles neutrally, eyeing me for a moment without comment.
I smile and lean forward carefully pecking the corner of his mouth with a kiss. “You picked the right contribution for me. Thank you.”
I start to pull back, but Lora’s entire body stiffens and his arm around me tightens, making moving back to my previous position impossible.
Surprised, and hoping I didn’t offend him, I look up, immediately reaching for an apology.
“I should have aaah… ooohhh.” That’s not the promise of retribution in his eyes. That’s…
Lora cups the back of my head, tucking his thumb under my chin and tilting my face upward.
He comes in slow but determined, and his lips touch mine with the same reverence I saw in my memory a few moments ago.
My entire body explodes with a neediness that I’ve never experienced in my life.
Heat rushes through me as my heart races.
I haven’t even tasted him yet, and I’m already so fucking excited I feel like a teenager again.
I grab whatever I can on his uniform, a strap and maybe the collar, and press myself in as close as I can, accidentally choking myself on his thumb.
I open my lips and suck his lower lip into my mouth, licking him.
I jerk back, surprised at how salty his skin is. It’s like drinking sea water. I’m not even exaggerating. Ok, maybe a little, but only a smidge. He is really salty. “Damn, Lora. You taste like I just dipped my sushi in the actual ocean.”
Lora stares at me wide-eyed, breathing harder than I’ve ever seen him, and a vein that runs from the top of his head down the side of his forehead and cheek, all the way into his neck, stands out, throbbing hard and fast. He rattles, a dangerous sound that some part of me recognizes as the threat of a predator while a more insistent part of me decides it’s an invitation to present my ass like a cat in heat.
A flush of heat spreads through me, and my dick, which had been nicely chubbed up, goes rock hard. I gasp, shocked at how quickly I’ve gone from yes to YES GODDAMMIT NOW, and I groan, unable to hold back the sudden unquenchable desire for this alien to fuck me. “Lora, I need you to fuck me.”
Lora rattles again, and this time it’s the predator’s approval. Without words, he lays me back on the sofa, keeping a steady grip around my neck. “I am leaving now,” he growls, and his hand briefly tightens.
“Noooo,” I whine, tears springing to my eyes in response to this devastating news.
“I will return,” he promises and disappears with a startling clap of thunder.
A sob escapes me at the loss, and the tears drip down into my hair. I take a deep, shuddering breath, and then…
Ok, what the fuck? That was really embarrassing? Why the fuck did I cry when he left? I’m a big boy, and I know how to handle rejection. What the fuck was wrong with me?
You know what? I bet it was something like the sleepy hormones he doses me in with every time he needs to take a nap.
Aliens, amiright?
Me: What the hell was that?
Lora: It appears humans are extremely sensitive to the hormones we excrete when we are signaling a willingness and desire for sex. I apologize.
Me: I think we all know that you guys are still learning about human physiology and how we interact with each other.
I don’t think there is any need for an apology, however, there is a need for a clear conversation about consent because I would have literally done anything to get your dick in me a few moments ago, and we need to establish some protocols before that happens if I’m going to keep losing my ever loving mind whenever we’re together like that.
Lora: Yes. I believe that is a conversation we will need to have. I will ask Dr. Randy to mediate for us.
Me: What do you mean by ‘mediate’?
Lora: A third person to witness and mediate the limits we set in regard to sex will help us maintain our higher mental functions during the conversation. When we have a clear set of rules, then we can engage in a sexual exchange.
Me: Am I going to see you before this conversation?
Lora: No. I cannot control the excretion of my hormones when I am aroused, and seeing you will arouse me.
Sigh.
Me: Alright. I guess I will see you when I see you.
Lora: Yes, you will.