The Deep Dark Well (13 page)

"That's,
wonderful," said Pandi, looking up at the smiling face of the superman,
wiping her tears away with her other hand.

"The merest of the
pleasures that await you on my home," said the smiling Watcher, his eyes
traveling hungrily over the naked body of the woman.  Pandi felt herself flush
under the glance, and she flushed an even deeper red as her eyes focused on his
hairless groin and the magnificent symbol of manhood that there dwelt.  Again
the scent of him grasped at her brain, feeding the desire that already raged
there. 
Pheromones
, she thought.  He exuded the scent meant to drive
women wild.  Then the thought left her mind as she allowed the desire to build.

"You are fortunate
to be alive, in any time," he continued, his smile drawing her back to his
face.

"But," he
continued, his hand reaching for and grasping her free hand, lifting her from
the chair to lead her to a pleasant embrace of bare skin, the embrace turning
into a dance as soul uplifting music came from nowhere to bathe the air.

"And I am very
fortunate," he said with a whisper in her ear, "that you are alive in
my time."

*    *    *

"I am so very
delighted of your arrival, my dear," said Watcher as he gazed again on the
naked body of the woman, covered in the sweat of their lovemaking. 
It is
amazing the effect of the real thing
, he thought, as his eyes crossed the
thick bush of red hair between her legs.  Even though the surrogate robots were
technically her superior in physical sensation and artistic endeavor, the
thought of a real sentient female impaled on his manhood brought a definite
thrill of anticipated pleasure.  And the pleasure she had groaned into his
mouth as he kissed her had not been the feigned and programmed act of a robot,
but again the real thing.

Pandi again gasped
another breath into her straining lungs, the wonderful fatigue of good sex
infusing her every muscle.  And good sex had led to emotional release such as
she had never needed before.  She had hoped he would be a great lover, and he
had been better than her expectations.  What else should she expect from a
superman?  If he had been bred or engineered or whatever to be a superior
being, why wouldn't they have made sure he was better than human in every way? 
Then the thought crossed her mind that she was assuming a lot.  What if he was
just an average dude in this time period, even the nerdiest of nerds?

That thought brought
the curiosity back to the front of her mind.  Here she was, by all the signs
she had seen so far, in some wonderful future, on some wonderful
station
. 
Why not enjoy it and learn as much about it as she could.

"What is this
place in which you live, lover?" she asked the superman.  "And why
did Robbie call it the
Donut
?"

"Robbie?" he
asked with a smile.  "Oh yes, the leader of those I sent to fetch
you."  He closed his eyes for a second as if concentrating on some deeper
matter.  Then his eyes opened as he smiled.  "A reference to a movie
robot, if the computer is correct. 
Forbidden Planet
."

"You accessed your
computer's memory?" she said with a frown.  He had not sub-vocalized
through some kind of mic, she was sure.  Unless he was much more adept at it
than any human she had known before. "How in the world did you do that
without talking to it or punching in a keyboard?  Telepathy?"

Again he closed his
eyes and concentrated on contact with the computer, in the pleasure of the
moment not for an instant worrying that he might be in danger.

"Telepathy as your
people thought of it does not exist in any known species," he said with a
grin.  "No brain produces enough of a current nor is any mind sensitive
enough to pick up the electrical processes of a mind at any distance, though
organic radio transmission has been documented in several alien races.  And
quantum entanglement in one."

"Then, what?"
she asked.

"A nanite
implant," he replied, "manufactured in place in my mind by
nanorobots.  It allows two way communication between various centers of my mind
and the computer."

"Amazing,"
she said, her mind searching through the implications of such a link.

"Something not
much removed from your own time, I'm afraid," he replied.  "Even if
it has been refined over the millennia.  Your own scientists had such on the
designing CAD."

"OK," she
said, "I'll buy that.  Now what about this place?  What is it?"

A hologram sprung into
existence in the air before the bed, a thin ribbon of shining substance
encircling, something.  A bright red light arced around the distortion at the
center of the ribbon, as stars shimmered in the same distortion.  Arced bands
of blinding light, a dozen of them, connected the ribbon with the distortion.

“I’ve seen this
before,” said Pandi.

“A view from space of
the
Donut
," said the Watcher.  "Over nine million kilometers
in circumference.  It used to be the center of the Galactic Empire, and the
commerce of countless worlds passed through its thousands of portals."

"And it gets its
power from the black hole in the center," she said.  "That's what
that distortion is?  How massive is it?"

"Your curiosity
amazes me," he said with a chuckle.  "As well as your intelligence. 
The station is in orbit around a two thousand stellar mass black hole.  The
bands of power you see are electron/positron arcs generated by the
gravitational swirl of the singularity through magnetic field lines generated
by the
Donut
."

"And the station
is called the
Donut
?" she asked.  "Like a pastry with a hole
in the center?"

"Of course,"
he replied with another show of strong white teeth, strong as diamond he had
told her earlier, coated with an integrated layer of the super hard carbon
material.  "But in this case a ribbon of civilization with a
hole
in the center.  A very massive hole indeed."

"But what happened
to all of the people?" she asked with a pouting frown.  "A thing this
size must have been home to billions at least, as well as a thriving transit
center."

"More like tens of
billions," he replied, his eyes flitting over her face.  "A great
disaster overcame the Empire, and the people fled to their home worlds."

"What kind of
disaster?"

"We," he said with a catch in his
throat, "will talk of it later."

"Of course, lover," she said in a
gentle voice, her arms reaching to enfold his head and lower it to her
breasts.  "Of course, we won’t talk about anything painful right now,
either of us."

"I have been so
lonely, Pandora Latham," he said sobbing, his hot tears bathing her tender
skin.  "I have waited for millennia for someone like you to come through
one of the portals."

"You don't have to
be lonely any more, my Watcher," she said in a low voice.  But she
wondered just the same.  Some of what he said didn't ring true, and Pandi
wasn't sure what it was.  What had kept this lonely being from going through
some of the portals on his own, if loneliness was a prime motivation?  What had
kept him so frightened that he had not dared to go through what to him would
have been no stranger than an aerial transport on old Earth?

Then she again lost herself in the moment, as
his face reached up to hers, and his lips again pasted themselves to hers, and
delicate six fingered hands again stroked her hungry flesh.

Chapter 7

1. The Lord God is good, as is all that was
created by him and  follows his word.  No harm shall be offered to his
creation.

2. The Lord Satan is evil, as is all that was
created by him and follows his word.  No succor  hall be offered to his
creation.

3. Thou shall not lie, by omission or
commission, to the servants of the Lord, or hinder them in any way in the
performance of their holy tasks.

4. Thou shall follow the dictates of the Elders,
and their appointed servants.  There is only right in obedience to appointed
superiors.

5. Those who offer succor to the servants of
evil, or aid them in any manner, ally themselves with evil, and shall be
afforded the same treatment as those born to evil.

The Five Commandments of the Nation of Humanity

The bridge of the
Orca
buzzed with activity, a double watch on duty since entering the inner part of
the Supersystem.  Com systems and passive sensors were swamped with
information, and the computer had a backlog of information to work on.

Admiral Miklas Gerasi
couldn’t believe the amount of traffic coming over the systems.  Dozens of
planets radiated like beacons in the sky.  Cradles of technical civilizations,
though none as advanced as the Nation of Humanity, or the object toward which
they boosted.  Other planets put out feeble signals at most.  Probably
inhabited by primitives, with spies from the technical civilizations among
them. 

The nav holo gave a
good overview of the status of civilization, planets highlighted by amount of
transmitted energy, the dots of ships here and there.  Most of the traffic came
from the two star systems in far orbit about each other, numbers four and five
out from the black hole.  Currently the slightly larger G2 was closest in,
while the K0 was the farther partner in the dance.

“Most of the signals
seem to originate from primitive first generation space faring planets,” said
the technology officer, his face looking out from the com screen set in the
bank of such on the admiral's C and C display.  “At most they possess chemical
fueled rockets, and first generation fission and fusion warheads.”

“What about those from
the double system?” asked the admiral, looking at what had to be the flares of
fusion drives on another screen.  Flares from two bodies of ships pointed at
one another across the distance, as their respective fleets decelerated toward
each other.

“They seem to use at
least second generation fusion systems,” said the tech officer, “with possible
antimatter priming.”

Pinpoints of painfully
bright light appeared near one of the fleets, followed soon by answering points
near the other. 

“Are those nuclear
warheads?” asked the admiral.  “The fleets war on each other?”

“Yes sir.  Speculation
is that the two systems each harbor their own nation, and the two war on each
other between the stars.”

A war of attrition
, thought the admiral. 
It would be nearly impossible to sneak up on your enemy, across the openness of
space.  They would see your drive flares, or detect your radiation, as soon as
you left your home base.  If the lessons of history at home were of any import,
the two powers would have a hard time striking at each other’s industry, and
the systems themselves were sure to be heavily fortified.  Not that it would do
them much good against ships like the
Orca
.

Another pinpoint of
light on the screen, this with a little different quality than the last.

“What was that?” he
called into the commo screen.  “That wasn’t a nuke.”

“No sir,” agreed the
tech officer.  “Analysis of radiation pattern indicates a high incidence of
gamma radiation.”

“MAM,” said the
admiral, wondering what other surprises the two warring powers might have in
hand.  Antimatter was expensive to manufacture, and the use of it in warheads
bespoke an immense industrial capacity.  But maybe not up to
Nation of
Humanity
standards.

“It might be a good
idea to visit one of those systems,” said the captain from behind him, “when we
are finished with our other business.”

Yes
, thought the admiral. 
If the
Nation
jumped in on the side of one power, and helped to defeat
the other, they would have allies in the Supersystem.  And that immense
industrial capacity, if upgraded to current tech, could be of great benefit to
whoever established themselves first in the region.

“It would be nice if
one of the powers was nonhuman,” said the admiral.  “Then we would know which
side to jump in on.  It may complicate matters some if they both turn out to be
human.”

“Not too much
complication,” said the captain.  “Might I suggest we come in on the side that
seems the most powerful at the time.  The winner should be too grateful to have
the war ended in their favor to care that they would have won in the long run
without our interference.”

“I like your thinking,
captain.  And then, by the time we have established a military presence in
their system, it will be too late to protest.”

Yes
, thought the admiral. 
If he could take the
Donut
, and have access to the energy stores legend
told of, he could turn on the enemy squadron behind him.  And after
establishing themselves with a home port, they would be equal to anything their
misguided enemy could throw at them in this region of space.

*    *    *