Damnation (Technopia Book 3) Read online

  The man flexed the identification between his fingers. “It’s still Earth technology. Your friends back there have control over what’s shared by this thin metalized glass.”

  It might also be Sam’s only way of letting the Tobe population on Earth know that he and Jess were still alive.

  Jess reached for Sam’s hand, indicating she shared the same thought. She then turned back to Rodrigo. “Tell us about traveling between the moons. What should we look out for?”

  The man gazed out the large living-room window at the moons circling overhead and the monster planet that dominated the sky. “With over sixty moons, traveling between them is pretty common. Choose economy grade, but be comfortable—no need to hop the broken-down shuttles that are constantly hustling passengers. They’re usually involved in some kind of smuggling. Hotels are geared toward the average worker, so pretty much any will do. The large, company-sponsored establishments will be hooked up to the network—smaller places tend to be less well connected. If you want to remain mysterious to our friends, those smaller spots might be better. Watch out for the grimy ones. They’re either catering to the poorer-level worker or engaged in illegal activities. Should the time come where you need to find a pirate, a bar in such a rundown hotel is not a bad place to start.”

  “Should we ask you where we should go first?” Jess asked. “Or is that information you’d rather not know?”

  Rodrigo’s smile had become less restricted. “I don’t know your plan, so I can’t advise you. But should you happen to travel to Lysithea, you might look for a pleasure club called Althea’s.”

  6

  It was past midnight when they left Rodrigo’s home. Sam held Jess’s hand in the dim light of only one far-off moon-sun as they walked down the nearly deserted streets. The only figures he saw kept to the shadows, leading him to believe that, like on Earth, this was not a time of day most reputable people ventured outdoors. But Sam no longer thought of himself as an upstanding member of society. If only there was a pirate ship they could hide out in for the night. Staying with their host wasn’t an option. Rodrigo had stuck his neck out farther than expected already. Having two strangers straggle out of his house first thing in the morning would create questions among the neighbors. Still, as Jess pulled at her space leathers, he wished they could have stayed long enough for her to take a small break from the adventure.

  He held her hand, hoping the physical connection would calm her down. “We knew this would be a challenge. At the very least, we know more now than we did when we got here. And we have a cover story that should keep us alive and let us travel among the moons. I know the information was distressing. It bothers me too. But the afternoon gave us a starting point.”

  Jess took a couple of deep breaths. It’d been a long day for both of them. “You’re right. I just can’t get over how something that did so much good for people on Earth, like the lens, could have such a dark counterpart out here—and with our friends’ help.”

  “I know, but Rodrigo did a good job of laying out a logical chain of events. It wouldn’t take much to turn Ellie into one of those friends who wanted to help people deal with their sexual inadequacies.”

  Jess looked down at her feet. “I think that’s what bothers me the most—how easy it would have been for it to have all gone bad. The Tobes are all so innocent on Earth. They wouldn’t even see what was happening. I wish we could contact them, give them a heads-up on what could go wrong.”

  Sam looked up at the moons circling overhead. “Clearly, our next stop is Lysithea. I get a sense there are some friends on Carpo but not many. And they are keeping their distance. My impression is that the best place to force one out into the open would be one of those pleasure clubs.”

  On Earth, the Tobes had protected Sam, their god. He was never fully convinced they couldn’t establish a lens around him like they could every other person. He needed space from his creation, and perhaps they’d used the excuse of his energy being too much like theirs as a cover to maintain that space. Either way, if he were to experience a pleasure club, and hopefully pull a Tobe out from hiding, he’d need the CE. “I’m not even sure what’ll happen to me once I set foot in one of those sex clubs.”

  Jess looked at Sam with concern. “You know I would endure the CE if it made any difference. But I suspect it’s going to have to be you. With my education growing up in the village, there’s nothing they could do to me that I couldn’t resist, but I can’t force one out of hiding.”

  “I had the same thoughts. We could stay the night here on Carpo, but I think I’d just as soon head to the space port and see if we can catch a late shuttle.”

  Jess pointed toward the end of a long side street. “I saw a craft land out that way.”

  It was only a short walk in the low gravity to reach the inter-moon launch port. Sam looked at all the shuttles in various states of disrepair. They looked slightly better than the pirate ship he and Jess had arrived in, but he predicted many would be heading for pirate ownership in the near future. The big, gleaming corporate shuttles meant for board members had their own landing zone well away from the commercial crafts.

  Jess looked one way as Sam looked the other searching for some indication of a ship that would take them to the pleasure moon.

  “Over there, that gaudy-looking ship,” Jess said. “Those don’t look like passengers headed for business meetings.”

  As they walked up to the craft, a man in a loud-print suit smiled in a way that made Sam uncomfortable. “This ship’s headed to Lysithea. I can get you there in a couple of hours. You don’t look to be headed for the family zone. Might I suggest the southeast continent? You can arrange transport from there to any spot on the moon. Just let your shuttle driver know where you want to go once you land—that is, if the southeast continent isn’t your chosen destination.” The slick salesman gave Jess’s attire a thorough inspection. “They’ve got some reasonable clothing stores too.”

  Transport to Lysithea was what they were looking for, but Sam still had an urge to wait for the next transport. Jess, however, didn’t hesitate to accept the offered ride.

  In contrast to the garish ship and personnel, the quiet passengers kept to themselves. As Sam took his seat beside Jess, she grasped his hand. “Can you feel any of our friends?”

  Strange that Sam hadn’t thought about it sooner. A shuttle of this size would almost certainly have a technologically based entity on board. He could sense something, but it made no attempt at communication.

  “Maybe, but they don’t want to talk.”

  Jess nodded. “I suspect this is the norm. Though we really never knew what Earth was like before they decided to come out of the closet. Other than Ed, Ellie, and Joshua, they were pretty elusive on that first trip.”

  Sam looked around the craft, hoping no one was eavesdropping. “Let’s just enjoy the ride.”

  Jess squeezed his hand again, letting him know she got the message.

  After traveling in pirate ships, the shuttle ride was almost enjoyable. It was no Persephone or even Leviathan. Being crammed in next to other passengers seemed downright archaic. But the seats were comfortable, and unlike riding in the pirate vessels, there was no need to hide from the other passengers. After two hours in space, the pleasure planet dominated the side view screens. Jupiter so filled the view screen behind Lysithea that no space was visible around the monstrous planet. It left Sam with a feeling closely resembling claustrophobia.

  Two paths led away from the landing bay on Lysithea. One went to intercontinental shuttles that looked like sister ships to Lilliput, Rendition’s shuttle back home on Earth that was available to Sam day or night. The other path led to far less reputable-looking hovercrafts meant for those seeking sexual adventures on the southeast continent. Jess pulled Sam toward the nearest hovercraft.

  The driver smiled at his new passengers. “Where to? Upscale, middle of the road, or down and dirty?”

  Jess squeezed Sam’s hand in fake excitement. “O
h dear, we’ve saved for so long. Please, can we do the upscale hotel? I’ve never stayed in luxury before.”

  Without waiting for Sam’s response, the driver gunned the engines, lifting the craft off the ground and sending dust in all directions. It wasn’t a bad decision. If what Sam had in mind worked, they’d want a strong network connection in their room. And lord knew he desperately wanted a luxurious bath—anything to get out of the space leathers.

  The driver shot the couple a lascivious smile as he pulled up to the corporate hotel—not one of the big luxury buildings meant for the rich and powerful but one displaying the name Lysithea and announcing it as the most an average working person might hope to afford. As Sam handed over his identification for payment, the driver gave him a wink then shot another glance down Jess’s body.

  The woman at the front desk proved no less obvious in her assessment of the couple’s physiques. Premarital sex might have been outlawed, but that repression had a strange way of freeing people’s eyes to wander.

  Sam only gave the room a cursory glance, taking in a bed that looked well used but comfortable, a couple of chairs, and a most enticing bathroom with a tub nearly as large as the bed. It’d do. They didn’t need much.

  Jess started clawing at her space leathers. The latches that had been clasped on Earth and then subjected to heat and cold, different gravitational pulls, and dust and rocks didn’t let go of their duties easily. The heavy jacket made popping noises as it separated from her shirt and pants.

  Sam tried peeling off his shirt. The garment’s sensors that had regulated his body temperature left evenly spaced, small red dots on his milky-white, wrinkled skin. Jess held his boots as he lay back on the bed and struggled to free his feet. He curled his toes in the dusty socks as they experienced the freedom of movement again.

  Once he’d performed the same favor to her feet, he inspected the biggest challenge—the pants. Carefully, he released the catches from around her waist. The garment had become more a part of her skin than a separate covering. The myriad of microsensors that had controlled all of her body’s functions had glued the heavy garment to her flesh. Peeling the pants down her hips and off her legs revealed deathly white skin underneath. But the sighs of relief from her proved the struggle to have been worth the effort.

  Naked, Jess helped Sam out of the remainder of his garments. It took half an hour of yanking, tugging, and prodding to fully be free of the garments that had kept them safe on their long trip out from Earth. The pile of disgusting space clothes filled a corner of the hotel room. Like two alien creatures newly hatched from their protective pods, Sam inspected Jess’s body as she did the same to his. It’d be a while before she returned to the sexy wife he longed to ravish. For the moment, he just had to make sure she hadn’t suffered any unnoticed ill effects from the trip. Even the best space leathers could leave dead spots on the skin—areas that wouldn’t be noticed until the body fully regained sensation from all the nerves that had been kept dormant. The ensuing pain would be much less intense if those areas were carefully massaged before all the nerves resumed their duties.

  As they lay in the insta-fill tub, warm water quickly enveloped them up to their necks. Slow-moving currents massaged their sensitive skin, increasing to micro jets as the muscles started registering their aches and pains.

  “This is good,” Jess said in a very sleepy voice. “They could’ve just rented us this tub, and I’d have been happy.” She bent her knee out of the water. Pink, full flesh slowly replaced the ghostly pale skin. “Just so you know, I’m not putting those damn space leathers on again. Once we succeed, I’m having Sophie come and pick us up.”

  “And if we fail?” It wasn’t a question Sam would have asked if he weren’t so comfortable and tired.

  Water splashed around Jess as she struggled to sit up. “I hadn’t given any thought to failure. I guess it wouldn’t really matter. There wouldn’t be an Earth to return to.”

  Her answer made him regret asking the question.

  7

  In Sam’s life, there were moments of waking he remembered well: being brought out of his technology-induced coma after fixing Leviathan, the amazing next morning waking up in Jess’s arms for the first time, and coming out of sleep in their jungle Garden of Eden on Chariklo to his daughters’ laughter as they jumped on the bed. He recalled the vast relief he’d felt waking up and knowing Sara was again safe in the family’s penthouse after her abduction. Now there was another morning to add to the list. He stretched out to caress Jess’s back, running his hand all the way down her perfect pink skin.

  Jess rolled onto her side. “How do you want to do this? I can stay here or go with you. Though I suspect it might look strange for a man to take his wife to a pleasure club.”

  “No work yet. If I have to endure what our friends consider sex, I think I’d like to have one more taste of the real thing first.” Their mission could wait, for the morning at least. The solar system wasn’t likely to lose the ability to sustain life if they stole just a couple of hours to once again be husband and wife.

  Jess snuggled tight to his side. The long-remembered feeling of flesh to flesh, how the curves of her body fit against his, the way her hair smelled—why would anyone want to interject technology into something so intimate? He lost his sense of time as he always did while making love to her. Minutes or hours held no meaning for him, only the exploration of his hands on her skin and the gentle caress of her touch.

  The last rays of daylight from the nearest moon-sun crept through the open window, bringing Sam out of his endorphin-filled snooze. Between enjoying each other’s bodies and drifting in and out of sleep, they’d managed to fill the day. The solar system might wait but not forever.

  Jess sat next to him on the bed, scrolling through a series of options on the bedside computer display. “They have quite the clothing menu. It would seem most visitors don’t want their daily outfits contaminated with their activities on Lysithea, or they want to dress according to their fetish. I wonder how a Lycra bodysuit would look on you. Some of these are quite revealing.”

  Sam rubbed at his skin. “Do they have anything loose fitting?” After weeks in the space leathers, the last thing he wanted was something sticking to his flesh.

  She punched at a figure on the display. A small pouch ejected from a slot on the wall next to Sam. It didn’t look like much, and for a moment, he feared she’d picked the skimpiest outfit on the menu. But as he pulled open the bag, the garment expanded into pants and a shirt. As he slipped them on, the adjustable fabric stretched in places and contracted in others until it fit his body. It hugged a little closer than he’d have liked, but it worked.

  Jess ejected a bag on her side of the bed and pulled on a floor-length dress that hugged tight to her curves. “Whether I stay here or go with you, I’d better have something to wear. Apparently, clothing here is disposable. Once we’re done with them, they go in the chute below the delivery slot and get recycled.”

  He wanted her by his side on the adventure. But he also feared what might happen. What if the sex club figured out who he was? If their dreaded CE didn’t work on him, the way the lens didn’t work on Earth, it would create uncomfortable questions from Tobes and humans. Even if the CE did work, how deeply would it penetrate his being? He wasn’t like other people. His energy was too closely tied to the Tobes.

  He pressed his fingers to his eyes. “Stay here. I don’t know what you’d be able to do if you were with me, but here at least I’ll think you’re in less danger.”

  “Can you hear them?”

  His computer-generated progeny left him with a headache even when they weren’t trying to shoot information straight into his brain. “They’re swirling around like a swarm of gnats. It’s not a buzzing but more like flashing red lights swimming around my head.”

  Jess’s eyes expressed her concern. “Do you think they know who you are?”

  Sam attempted to focus on a specific light only to have it blink out. “T
hey’re curious, but I can’t tell what they know. Based on what Rodrigo told us, I think they’re attempting to figure out how to provide the sexual service between husband and wife he described. But as we don’t have the CE, and they don’t have a network history on us to refer to, they’re just buzzing around, waiting.”

  Jess pulled her legs up onto the bed, looking a lot like one of their daughters when they had a tough question. “I know you have to endure the CE, but I think it’d be best if I didn’t accept it. Rodrigo said they could only encapsulate a person if they agreed to it. If I stay clear, I might be in a better position to help should something go wrong.”

  “Agreed. You also still have the lens even though it’s inactive this far from Earth. I’m not sure how the two systems might interact. Plus, I don’t want even the possibility of our friends interfering with our sex time.”

  “That’s another thing,” Jess said. “I’d rather not engage in sex in a networked room. I don’t like the idea of you being surrounded by the CE while you’re with me. I can see the advantages, and lord knows I trusted Mira with all the adventures she put your body through while we lived on Leviathan. But there’s something different about this that I can’t quite define.”

  Sam nodded. “I know what you mean. This isn’t about pulling people out of themselves to connect more with others. It’s more like driving them farther into their own fantasies. Of course, that means we might have to find a secluded area somewhere close for our activities. We’ll probably want somewhere we can talk more openly as well. Maybe you can scout around while I visit the club. Just make sure it’s well hidden. I doubt exhibitionism is as accepted here as it is in our village on Leviathan.”

  Jess gave him a seductive smile. “I wonder how far people push that limit out here. I’ll do some investigating.”

  “Just be careful.”

  Reflected light off Jupiter filled the streets with a burnt-umber hue. Buildings three or four stories tall crowded next to each other, leaving only tight, dark alleyways filled with refuse, both human and material. Bars filled with drunken revelers outnumbered the greasy-smelling food establishments. Sober individuals kept their collars pulled up around their faces as they scurried along the covered sidewalk. The more inebriated required the full width of the street to contain their rambling, boisterous parade. Sam pulled at the paper-thin garment as he worked his way down the street, trying to be as inconspicuous as possible.