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The truth is that she really killed him in the end, just nobody noticed.






Gary is waiting for the old man to arrive at the forward post. They set it up nearby the screen for Kate as an observation and maintenance station. It quickly became more than that – various specialists and analysts wanted to have an direct view on the young woman. Constructed from prefabricates light enough not to crush all inhabitants should they fall apart, the two stories tall buildings already occupy more than eighty acres and there is never enough of them, it seems. Durable enough to withstand quakes and gusts of wind caused by her movements, the station is currently temporary shelter for at least two thousand people, including the maintenance and security personnel.

It was where they took Rachel after she was brought back after the “private” chat with Kate. Of course when the girl took Rachel away, Crawford commented Gary's persuasions to let Kate know about the mother presence here as too hasty... Of course, it was a gamble – but, as Gary argued, waiting much longer could be much worse and the old man must have chosen to let Rachel speak to her. In the end, it was his decision and he didn't blame Gary. They would have to do it eventually anyway and if she could give some advices before Kate's excursion to Lauren's place, it would be even better – another argument he used when they discussed it before.

Well, of course they could conceal her arrival and calculate a virtual personality profile to impersonate her, with proper interrogation equipment and some computers, anything can be done – but it would still be risky. Physical scan was simple, but even after weeks of torture and brain scans to extract enough information, a full behavioral profile was.. imperfect to say the least. There would still be a multitude of things that could go wrong and after something like that, they really would never be able to let Rachel talk to her directly... When Crawford mentioned it as an alternative, Gary thought that he might be actually willing to do it and such possibility was.. unsettling.

Gary receives a notification that the shuttle has to take a detour due to Kate's rolling over to face the screen – Rachel insisted on telling her about those light-show crazies and she departed there just earlier. Gary didn't have anything better to do, so he decided to wait in the landing pads area for the other party to arrive and now this means that he simply has to wait some more. It feels bad, but he wouldn't mind if Kate moved and caused them to crash or at least delay it even further. The perspective of meeting Crawford after his little stunt is not particularly pleasing. Of course he hasn't said a word about the reasons for this visit other than that he will come over shortly.

Whatever the old man was doing in the Works anyway.. probably one of the defense weapons that Gary heard about – and with the newly acquired plutonium, they finally have the juice to power something that could be used against the “caretakers”. Gary hates the way how they squeezed that request in.. obviously Kate haven't noticed and Rachel either missed it as well or generously decided not to comment the extra item on the list of materials. They talked earlier how they could use uranium for makeshift thermal reactors, but it was pointless to request both fissionable elements at the same time.

Even though he wasn't told about this, it was obvious to Gary that it was meant for something else... Or perhaps it wasn't so clear for Rachel? She mentioned how a century of experimenting with the facility's systems forced them to learn many new things, but could it also have made them forget some? And being born in the facility, she wasn't given the privilege of seeing the nuclear mushroom through her bedroom window – a view that has burned deep into Gary's memory. It certainly can change the way how a teenager perceives the world...

But it didn't get him and three years later he was safe with his parents in the newly opened uTopia. Of course now they have different problems and most of them are around ten miles tall, relatively. Gary thinks how he ended up in this position – barely two weeks ago he was flying into a cavernous ear without any care in the world. Completely unaware of everything that was going on around him and of all the plans he was going to spoil or alter. He learned a bit about those things since then.

The organizational chaos that Kate's first arrival caused was simply unprecedented. Nobody knew what to do: political leaders deferred to the Service and vice versa. People expected both structures to give them answers or at least some comfort, but when they failed to receive either, most turned towards religions and cults, many of which heralded the end of the world, incoming salvation or some other scheme. While accidents and suicides skyrocketed, nobody was trying to address their young guest. Well, some five people did, but it went mostly unnoticed among the bureaucratic mess, which have overwhelmed the government structures from local authorities to the councils.

Gary learned that it hasn't changed when Kate so magnanimously requested a governor – it was simply impossible for the stiff administration to come up with anything like that so quickly and he heard unofficially that it was only due to the risk of a bottom-up coup that they decided to give broad emergency powers to the only man who seemed capable of handling this situation. Crawford could have grasped that kind of power during any of the Reorganizations, but back then he merely lead to maintain peace and stability. When Kate came, there was nobody else fit for the job, so the politicians agreed on this quickly.

They may have underrated his role in the explanation for Rachel, but it was true that the old man had no official position in either the Service or any of the governmental structures. All of his directives had to go through responsible commanders and officials, but they were carrying them out without asking.. or thinking, it seemed... That was why Gary hoped to get Crawford's approval for the humanitarian help and he knew the answer in private would be negative – just like it was before Kate spoke out. His little trick could have just as well backfired big time.. and it seems he will learn about it soon enough.

It is strange to think that Crawford was probably the only person to maintain enough sanity to approach the problem methodically and logically. At first everyone wanted to get away from Kate.. like it would make them any safer. Even with various restrictions and power struggles on all levels of command, Crawford was able to keep some degree of order and eventually come up with solutions to the most urgent matters. Like explaining the giantess that walking around the zone would not be a good idea... Having watched some recordings and analysis after his “aural adventure”, Gary understood how little she knew in the first days and how crucial was the old man's role in her realization.

The officials who communicated with her first assumed some degree of experience and tried to explain problems as to a professional – which she obviously was not. Any references to thousands of deaths were met with just a sad expression on her face, but Kate wouldn't offer them any comfort, except reassurances how she doesn't want to hurt anyone and they don't have to fear.

From the early hours, there were teams of behavioral psychoanalysts, who examined all her words and actions. Every littlest twitch and hesitation, pulse change and temperature variation – everything that could aid in analysis of her state of mind. With the help of complex algorithms it became clear, that the references to people dying because of her actions weren't inspiring compassion, but rather annoyance and shame. Unable to figure out what that meant, officials insisted on appealing to her humanity and conscience – but Crawford quickly changed the approach.

He usually assumed the most pessimistic hypothesis the analysts were suggesting after their observations. The attempts to calm them suggested they should be really worried, lack of reaction or much interest in the deaths made him presume Kate's ignorance or carelessness about them, and so on. Instead of trying to discuss with her as equals, Crawford began trying to teach her. It was seemingly an impossible task – only with the access to both sides of the conversations, Gary was able to understand what was really happening in those early days. What was behind those awkward smiles and uneasy laughs...

Of course now they know that she wasn't really perceiving them as human beings, but back then.. to imagine something that terrifying and attempt to enlighten her. It quickly became apparent that Crawford's strategy was working – even though they tried so many things, she seemed to ignore or assume to be just some things the “micros” do – as they learned from the first visits by others as they were called by “caretakers”. Technically they still are, but at least not any more by Kate. Like a mole drilling in her head, the realizations started with little things and eventually the idea that the “micros” can somehow be people too must have changed the way how she saw them. All thanks to the old man's persistence and careful planning. Had anybody else organized it all, by now they would be most likely doing some chores for her and... everything else Brian Leibner mentioned was happening elsewhere.

No doubt about it, Crawford's role in her realization was irreplaceable, but the problem was that he was so careful with everything. When Gary arrived, they were barely starting to consider introducing her to somebody else – fearing the confusion caused by having to talk to more than one person. They even had the screen ready for several days, but decided not to show it, since it might be too “shocking”. Crawford decided to wait and see how she behaves, instead of pursuing her newly acquired emotional engagement to explain things properly, especially when she assaulted her “friend”... - that was just the right time to act and they would have slept through it.

Sure it was risky, but it seems to have paid off. And Crawford would do nothing just to learn more about her “transition”, as he called it. To see if she is actually ready for more information and whether she will believe them this time as well or rather turn back to behaving like before. Or worse yet – like others, they already heard some of the terrible things “the mothers” spoke about their “daughters”. Gary never perceived Kate as somebody evil, just.. ignorant and uneducated, and terribly.. in so many areas. He believed that she won't dare to hurt them once she learns the truth. The old man commented it was wishful thinking and the stakes were too high to risk such rash actions.

At least Gary was able to speed up some plans by making himself known to Kate. Unaware of just how risky it was... but it turned out quite alright so far. Of course there was still a chance that she only wanted to gain their trust and doesn't really mean to care about them. They heard many things about what some others were doing... But then it is just like Rachel summarized earlier today - they really have no choice. If Kate starts knowingly hurting them.. there will be absolutely nothing they will be able to do about it.

Yes, Gary always thought of her as a curious teenager – maybe she went a bit astray with some things, but certainly she was willing to learn and trying to understand the world around her. Even despite the warnings and uncertainty they kept getting from the neural observation networks grown to augment the analysis – which most of others regarded as suggestion she may be hiding a lot of things, he chose to believe it's merely caused by her realization and suddenly changed perspective. It turned out that it was him to be right most of the time and neuroprogrammers had to constantly retrain the wetware to be up to date.

But Crawford was still there, criticizing most progressive actions as reckless and unwise – at least he always listened to everything he said, considered pros and cons, potential risks and gains and made a decision. Even though Gary sometimes was eager to argue, he also understood that the old man had much more experience in these kinds of things and eventually even begun to take his point of view at times. It was good enough that Kate wasn't going to harm them, she didn't need to understand everything immediately. It was better to keep some revelations, in case she gets really bored... After all some other caretakers have known the truth about humans and still behaved like monsters. Who knows what will happen to Kate over the next years and decades.

Even with her today's confession, the future is still uncertain – despite her sweetness, there is literally nothing else to do in the facility and who knows what ideas may come to her cute, but still gigantic head? Perhaps those weapons Crawford must be working on with many engineers are not a bad idea... If only they could be sure what is really happening outside. They could read Kate's emotions easily by now, but Rachel was much harder to analyze due to her age and experience – and there were simply no other ways of finding out more about the outside. Leibner already told them everything he was able to remember and it was not a comprehensive vision of the world.

At least they learned that Rachel doesn't seem to have a hidden agenda after watching headphone recordings of their little chat. And it was somewhat awkward – which is understandable given her position on Kate's fingernail – but fairly open and explanatory. She even forwarded some details from their earlier discussion to explain some things to Kate and the girl seems to trust her almost unconditionally. They will have to see how that turns out, maybe Kate really failed to understand the intricacies of her behavior and is not a narcissistic egomaniac, as some psychoanalysts heralded her to be when she took Rachel away.

It surely proved to be quite problematic for the public when reports like that were leaking – panic spread and even riots erupted... The Service had to put up random roadblocks and curfew before situation was put under control. It reminded Gary of the food riots, except this time people haven't started shooting each other. At least he didn't see any of that on the news and at that time he was isolated on the farm and then in various Service bases following his escapade.

It was not his role to investigate what was going on outside, so he hardly knows what was going on in areas outside Kate's “spot”, but it seemed that Rachel's shock might have been quite reasonable... Especially given how she was detained at one of those blockades according to the report. It could be easily perceived as oppressive, but those were necessary restrictions – if the people resorted to more widespread chaos, the effect it would have on Kate could be bad. She already seemed deeply concerned about some random fire – which was a result of an extremist bombing, but they concluded unanimously that she didn't need to be concerned about such details.

Now things quieted down after her confession... And the child lottery also helped. It was hard to say which one was more beneficial, but it was clearly visible in the media how people were suddenly interested in seeing their new offspring born, rather than riot and kill each other. Another one of Crawford's ideas, Gary heard and it was a fairly simple one. If more people are killed by either chaos or Kate, the children will have resources to live and even if there will be no more “incidents”, increased carbon availability will make crop cultivation easier. That was another shocking fact about her arrival – even unknowingly, Kate has already helped them.

The main problems with food production were energy cap for the synthesizers and carbon availability for farms and bioculture casks. The first were extremely material efficient, but power hungry and even the twelve or so that were in the zone before Kate's arrival weren't running at full capacity. It was the lack of attention to such details that plagued the facility since the day one. The zone was theoretically self-sufficient in case of any emergency, but it was only when they actually had use them on that they realized the dilation field power cap is too low... It was originally established per chamber to prevent abuses, such as antimatter production or worse. The dilation field is a perfect power medium and using it, construction of dangerous things like makeshift plasma bombs or chemical weapon plants was pretty straightforward. The cap was safely more than enough during normal facility function, when most of food was imported from off-zone – but when the transport broke...

And the carbon dioxide.. to even thing that it was deemed dangerous to life at some point in history – what kind of morons those ancestors were? Carbon, the most basic component of all life! And of course people in New Vienna were smug enough to always want “clean air” and consequently requested life support systems to be configured to maintain low “pollutants” share in the atmosphere. Gary concludes that they were probably some descendants of those so called “eco-freaks” from the past... But after the failure.. facility simply filtered CO2 from the fires and destruction caused by riots. Hell, it was a full blown civil war back then. And later it turned out that there is no lower limit for carbon content and they simply never had enough of it since.

Sure, there were other problems and so many of them over the years. Water was one of them – atmospheric controls were also configured to maintain low humidity and to prevent shortages by being filtered, they developed solutions to catch most of it into reservoirs so it never became a problem. Following the shutdown food reserves were quickly dwindling and although synthesizers provided some relief, the future did not look good. They hoped farming would supply the rest, since the “sunlight” was still available, but the first problem was they had no seed. Or hardly any – they managed to find some in places like museums or hobbyist farms, but it was hardly enough at the beginning. They are still struggling with lack of genetic variety. Nobody seemed to worry enough to prepare a DNA storage inside the zone in case something broke and now many foods are simply lost to them. In some cases they were able to develop some “substitutes”, but it was far from the real thing. And of course vast majority of animals were unavailable too, since the zone did not feature a single zoo.

But the real problems started to surface when they tried to plant crops... Some geniuses, maybe the same who wanted the “clean air”, decided to settle in a tundra zone. Over time it became popular enough in some circles that the climate was reconfigured into something resembling British isles but with less rain and weaker sunshine. Apparently the smug elite that moved here didn't want to suffer a hot summer – sure the winter was also mild, but such conditions do not help any vegetation to grow. It also made solar panels less efficient and since they don't have enough rare metals to mass-produce them.. they were stuck with farming.

But the worst part was soil. Or rather, lack of it. What on earth usually took a number of agents and millions of years to develop, could not be created within the century between the zone was established and the shutdown. The only ingredient abundant enough is dirt – they have plenty of it everywhere, but that is not enough for anything to grow. Without phosphate deposits and enough energy to bind nitrogen from air on larger scale, producing fertilizer was next to impossible and initially virtually no crops would grow anywhere. Especially given the short and cold summer.

It took decades to genetically develop organisms – and many of them almost from the scratch – to fill this gap. Gary was working on several projects related to farming efficiency and it was extremely tedious to manipulate the genes to obtain certain features. For instance no nitrogen-fixing bacteria could not be found across the zone and they were still trying to.. overcome it. What evolution accomplished in billions of years cannot be done in a century – but they still managed to do a lot.

Of course the early years were tough. For some people very tough. The first decade was remembered by undernourishment, ravaging health problems, no-children policy, population disarmament and more... After several years came the life for life option, where parents could raise a child but only if one of them sacrificed after several years. Many policies and restrictions they had to endure seemed terrible – and many people rebelled against them – but they were necessary to survive. Otherwise food-wars would quickly rage once again.

But they survived. Technologies emerged and they were able to slowly increase the food production to the point where there was no hunger anymore. And then further, which allowed to raise the population cap, allow people to actually have children – under very controlled and restrictive conditions, but still. Not that it mattered for Gary – he only cared about himself and never really wanted any offspring. It was a nice distraction, but costs were meant to be prohibitive – if he worked hard for a four or five decades, he might be able to afford an extra life with a partner, but.. what for? Some people still worked entire lifetimes for that and were happy to.

It must have been shocking for Rachel to discover this social arrangement – with having to pay flat taxes to be even allowed to live... It sounds terrible, but they implemented this system during the Reorganizations to assure that everyone contributes – whether it's research, art or various services. With the perspective of being forever stuck in this place... it was the only solution. They had no comfort to allow parasites and even if some maniacs disagreed, it worked. Gary didn't like it either at first too, but at least everybody was trying to be useful. They had to – there was simply no way a homeless junkie could afford the taxes and the policy enforcement was strict.

But it all seems irrelevant now. It took Kate fifteen minutes to acquire the minerals and they can produce all the fertilizer they need and fill the biocasks with necessary components. Hell, they don't even need to worry about farming since soon they will be able to power up all the synthesizers – the ones Kate brought with her are still laying unused and they will only have enough energy when they construct some fission reactors. Fully powered, they alone could support the current population and with proper farming and fertilization.. he heard some specialists discussing how they should be easily able to support four to five times that, even with this lousy sunlight.

It all seems so simple now.. except there is this one new danger looming over them in the form of a ten mile tall young woman. And how could he have done this to Crawford? Gary doesn't even know what drove him to act like that. The old man trusted him. Well, maybe not that much, but at least respected his opinion, listened to him. If Gary explained the topic in private and pursued it further, then with some help from Kate, the councils would have surely agreed. It would be too late though, since Rachel explained him that Amber would have already received help from somebody else. Food production in other zones was rarely a problem. It was just a matter of time before somebody aids her – but since she asked Kate first, it could be their chance to get crucial information about what is happening in the other zones.

Recordings from the two colonies weren't helpful at all, merely some vague remarks from Amber – either purposely ambiguous or, more likely, simply caused by her ignorance. They picked it all up thanks to Kate wearing the headphone when travelling – or “teleporting” – between the zones. But this abuse of the headphones unnerved Gary – what if she ever finds out? Will Kate be able to trust them after such conspiracy? It was true she never asked whether they store anything or even if they have any functions, but... networking them to exchange information was already a stretch – and recording video directly and they are even capable of launching a small fleet of reconnaissance drones.

Fully equipped spying depot, tapped into dilation field for main power supply, but also equipped with internal rechargeable chemical reactor in case access to it was obstructed. Enough storage capacity for a thousand years of recordings.. even a couple dozen seats for potential passengers, although the journey would be rough, since the deceleration field isn't strong enough. And Crawford was almost delighted when Kate asked, if she can give some to others – who seemed to like this small, yet very helpful, harmless contraption. Sure...

But now Crawford's shuttle finally – which for Gary is still too soon.. – makes its approach and Gary begins to prepare himself for the confrontation. Apart for him, the only living souls here are two maintenance guys on the other side of the landing platform. He expected the old man to come quickly out the back, but the doors are not opening and it seems that he must have been piloting it himself – the fast skyjet isn't as easy to handle as any kind of skycar. Dilation fields engines have serious limitations, but at least they can provide constant support, unlike the more volatile thrusters used in this small craft. Only used when fast transport is necessary, the shuttles are hard enough to handle that few pilots are skilled enough to handle them and usually autopilot is employed. But this approach was definitely manual – Crawford must have some strange “hobbies”.

Gary walks around and salutes as the old man leaves the cockpit, but his only response is: “Spare me the formalities...” - once on the ground, his informal superior looks around and adds - “shall we take a walk?”

But of course it is not a question and Gary has to actually catch up a couple steps in the direction opposite to where the compound is. They walk next to each other in nervous silence. Gary doesn't want to start talking, unsure of how to even explain his action. Can he state anything to defend himself? Trying to portrait is as a simple mistake would be ridiculous – they never spoke like that with the presence of Kate and he purposely linked a separate call in instead of connecting the old man to their main conversation.

“I understand you must have had very important reasons to have concealed the fact that she was listening in” - Crawford finally accuses him. It wasn't a question, so Gary decides not to answer - “At least you haven't specifically conspired with her against us” - it was often annoying how Crawford assumed plural form in such conversations. He was selected to represent the councils and by extension – the people, but it doesn't give him the right to speak like some monarch. Gary's approach might have impacted his position a little, but certainly it didn't hurt their standing with Kate:

“Sir, I only wanted to show her some more honest conversation and I would have mentioned something, should you give away something that could compromise–”

“Then you should have let me know privately and I could have pretended, for god's sake..” - Crawford is visibly angered, even while walking deeper into the dark plain, even gesticulates while continuing - “This is unacceptable. I can understand how our new immigrant may be scared and confused, possibly deserves some slack due to all that, especially being a civilian, but what's your excuse to disobey orders?”

Has Gary got one? He mentioned how he planned to mitigate any problems, but.. the reference to Rachel was a clear warning, has he gone too far already? He should have come up of with some way to explain himself, but was there any? After all, what can he say...

“Sir, I did this in hope of facilitating the decision on the humanitarian help” - perhaps if he pursues this line of reasoning, his actions won't seem too rash? -
“If I could convince you to recommend this course of action, I am–”

“It's already underway. Apparently the councils can act surprisingly quickly, if only there's an overgrown teenager behind the request” – the old man interrupts.

“She.. Sir, she is not...” – Gary starts, but then realizes that it is hard to question the description that Crawford assigned. He wouldn't put it in this way, but both parts were.. true. Fortunately the old man doesn't comment his attempt to object and they continue to walk in silence.

It also makes sense... he has heard how Kate's actions had a profound impact on various policies already and she did seem very emotional about this particular request. Meanwhile, Crawford picks up where he left off - “The entire thing is a disaster. It will make us all look like jumping to carry out her slightest whim.”

It didn't seem like an impulse on her part in any way, but Gary chooses to ignore that remark – they discussed those things often and Gary usually overestimated Kate's understanding of and emotional engagement in various matters.. she is still a fairly simple teenager, after all.. and overgrown too...

After taking several steps in silence, Crawford continues - “I should have court marshaled you for that already” - even if he doesn't have the authority to do so directly, any applicable Service commanders would have gladly crucified Gary for whatever pretense. But of course, he won't be able to do that now... - “But we both know I cannot do that.”

Yes, with Kate being so attached to him, Gary is able to tread more aggressively – but how long this state of affairs is going to last? They already seen several times how short is her attention span and if his “successor” was to explain how he needed a break for personal reasons...

Crawford continues: “With that little trick, you have put me in a very difficult situation, between the procedures and obligations to the people and that ignorant mountain. And while I can ignore the former, who knows what abominable idea may come the that crazy enormous head of hers” - while the old man is technically right, Gary feels like they should focus at the good side of her reaction. Especially that now Kate seems to be deeply touched by the “crazies” with that light show – Gary merely repeated the old man's opinion in the discussion with Rachel and Kate earlier. He is not sure if Crawford is watching it too, but he can see what is displayed on the screen in the corner of his retina overlay and they both are able to see her reactions live, far out in the distance. It is already well into the night, but the posts at the edge of her spot provide enough light for them to see her expression.

“Sir, I really think that we need to consider other perspectives of the current situation–” - Gary starts, but is interrupted:

“To the point.”

He looks up to the looming Kate's face on the horizon – how can some lazy ex-caretaker convince anybody that perhaps they don't need to worry about her state of mind that much - “She seems emotionally engaged in the the situation and everything that she learns is only deepening that impression...”

“And how long do you think this will last? If she so gracefully noticed the 'micros' are people, then she can just as well realize the hopelessness of her own situation and start behaving like the others. We discussed this and you continue insisting on your suicidal ideas. The 'mothers'” – he speaks the word almost with disgust – “knew everything from the start and they still most likely managed to commit terrible atrocities. Not to mention that we can only speculate on how much remains unknown to us.”

“But Rachel seems not to have–”

“She is as dirty as the rest of them, the fact that she behaves so nicely now is only caused by her current situation.”

Gary haven't really thought about that earlier – Rachel mentioned some uneasy things to Kate in their “private chat”, but with everything they heard about her not participating in various “parties” and other genocides... Crawford must have heard or figured out something more, but why wouldn't he tell him? Or is it just speculation? He wouldn't explain his reluctance to let her talk to Kate in the first place.

“What I'm getting to” – Crawford continues – “is that you consistently give away facts that could be used in tactically more appropriate moments. Right now it seems that playing for time to avoid losses is our only hope.”

Gary thinks about this in the silence that follows. Is this how Crawford sees Kate's presence here? As some sort of struggle between them and her.. but Gary knows, no... He always believed that she wouldn't want to deliberately hurt anyone – especially after her realizations – but what if the same happened to others? The thought of Kate using them for her pleasure is... actually similarly disgusting as any other caretaker. Is Gary wrong about this?

But he feels like there is something more about her, something that may make her act differently. Rachel keeps insisting that Kate was always the most careful and one of the most intelligent among the girls – so far they haven't found anything to contradict that. What if they could figure out some kind of arrangement with her that wouldn't mean degrading them to toys? What if Crawford is wrong about Kate's character and that playing for time might cause her character to take a turn for the worse?

Finally, Gary is able to understand some reasons behind the old man's behavior in the past six weeks – he was simply playing it as his last war, the most demanding conflict in his life. Against an enemy that he couldn't hurt – they figured that out fairly quickly – and the only chance was to reason with her. But it is different since her confession, since she started realizing what is going on – and especially now with Rachel to help them too. That was why Gary has almost always been right about what her reaction to various things they did would be – even though everyone wanted to analyze her reactions and delay further revelations, he insisted on moving forward.

He was even right with the way of introducing Kate to such new things – telling her the Ferdam's story was a complete success, especially preceded by chats with several others. Or introducing more ex-caretakers, she was genuinely interested in their life stories as well. They could clearly see it in her reactions – analyzed with painstaking accuracy by ever more systems and teams. Everybody else was either perceived her as some sort of messiah or was afraid of her. People outside the Service usually went for the former, but intel they managed to gather about the outside world usually seemed to inspire even more fear, so people working with him settled for the latter. But Gary...

He thinks why he has even approached Kate in the first place. What really drove him to even attempt this crazy stunt and everything what happened afterwards. The inability to get through the Service drove him to risk his own life to get to her. That was one thing, but could it be repeating now? Rachel also played her part in suggesting that he should do more than just carry out orders. But the truth was that Gary wants to make a difference. And in his life the only way he did that was to act against whatever he saw wrong with whatever others were doing – and now Crawford became his adversary.

This was his basic role in the facility before the shutdown. Or Failure – Gary notices how he even started to use Kate's vocabulary while thinking... although this message that he received shortly after he was locked in his quarters resurfaced in his memory, it didn't seem worthy of mentioning though. And back before all that he was, just like everybody else, responsible for various mundane tasks on day-to-day basis – but as one of three people, he was performing the final review on virtually any engineering projects before implementation – to make sure that plans are actually safe for construction.

The researchers were the worst. They wanted to do all kinds of crazy things with various systems, but – often having never seen or experienced the reality of the outside – they would sometimes forget about obvious little details. Like the fact that they cannot use uncovered high energy voltage since the CO2 that was used as background gas early on would be electrolysed and cause dangerous side-effects, including atomic oxygen flowing through various chasms and gaps of the neighbouring structures, causing corrosion and risk of flames or even explosions. They almost lost some live chambers this way. Before the shutdown it sounded like the worst thing that could possibly happen, but now...

Well, it was still pretty bad – even the high-ups agreed to set up the review process and make sure nothing like that happens again. So eventually Gary became one of the people who had to keep saying “no” to some ridiculous ideas of who-knows-how-important-people. And he would immediately reject whatever projects he deemed dangerous. Even if he felt that something was too risky or could be done in a better way. And he was doing that for four decades... That is probably the main reason for him to act against what he felt was a bad course of action. He needed to act and it spontaneously manifested in his actions.

Now he is probably the only person who can look past Kate's enormity and see a simple, timid girl. One that is smart and curious – at the same time being deprived of so much in the terrible world she lives in. Maybe except Rachel, since she knew her on the outside. It is also true that he was ready to die when flying into her ear, so his opinions may be considered “suicidal” or at least risky, but he simply cannot imagine Kate repeating here what they heard others seem to be doing:

“Sir, with all due respect... This isn't some kind of war and she isn't an enemy” - this brought Crawford's attention, he is still walking forward, but now turned his face towards Gary and looked at him – for the first time since the brief acknowledgement after he left the skyjet - “Even if the others out there are playing games that could endanger the lives of people here, we need to consider Kate as our ally in any such conflict” – they had gone through this discussion several times already, although he was never so direct, but still repeating more detailed arguments would be redundant.

Gary expects quick reply about his ignorance and how he doesn't know anything, but there is nothing like that this time. The old man turns his head forward and continues the excursion – where are they going anyway? They are moving in the direction of Kate's “spot”, but it would take an hour to walk even to the edge. For her it is just shoulder length distance from her face – if not less... Still, they have perfect view of the girl, who is currently looking slightly to her side and over them – presumably at the light-show crazies. There is mostly just barren land for miles around them, so they have line of sight for miles in every direction and most notably are able to clearly see her huge laying down form.

And what a sight it is. Especially how over the next couple minutes, Kate seems to be on the verge of breaking into tears – after some emotional interviews that she was shown. Despite this event was actually completely spontaneous, Gary thinks it wouldn't be possible to arrange it much better, even if they tried. And why hasn't he thought about showing her some kids? It's so obvious now...

When she rises and says her “good night” for the first time ever addressing everyone rather than whoever she was talking to at the time, it seems like almost the proof for Gary's words... But they still have no choice anyway – as Rachel recently summarized.

“I hope the God you're right, you maniac.. or rather wish...” - are Crawford's only words, although Gary can't see him as a religious type.




This was the last he spoke with the old man – after Kate left, they returned to the base in complete silence and Crawford departed back to wherever he came from. Gary was left without new orders, so he continued any plans they had underway. After taking a quick-rem sleep, they are back to discuss plans for the following days. With proper diet and a dose of special hormones, enzymes and neurostimulants, most people can maintain high focus with two or three hours of sleep for around three weeks, but Gary was trying to keep his metabolism reasonably normal. The procedure was meant mainly for emergencies such as wars or cataclysms and the situation was stable.. at least before Rachel showed up.

Now they needed extra time to learn more about the outside world. They used to gather disconnected bits and pieces of information from wherever they could and Rachel could provide them with much more comprehensive story. Or at least, so they hoped – in the end it was pretty much what they were already expecting. She confirmed most of the important details and while she also mentioned many subtleties, it didn't change the big picture – they are stuck inside and it is all up to Kate to find out how much she can do with their IDs or whatever they are able to figure out. It is also only up to her to gather any allies necessary to stop whatever Erica seems to be planning. For the foreseeable future, at least.

Another question is what the mother may be planning and while they have many theories, they simply couldn't be certain about anything due to sparse information – neither Rachel nor Kate haven't heard anything solid about that, so they have to base their action on clues and suspicion. It is frustrating, but they can only wait to see how it unfolds.

There is nothing they can do from within the zone – they tried working on the wristcom that was miniaturized with Rachel. The fact alone that it arrived with her was strange enough, the procedures weren't supposed to bring equipment with the immigrants... Not to mention that the device was somehow encased in a protective shield similar to the dilation field – which didn't make any sense as Rachel wasn't herself. They figured there must be something terribly wrong with the procedure of her immigration.

Still, the wristcom is mostly functional, but almost completely deaf – any electronic communication from the zone is blocked and it only responds to Rachel's manual operations. But while it seems functional and connected to the outside somehow, she cannot contact anybody or access anything useful. Several programs are still available, but none of them can help, it seems.

After Kate returned in the morning and welcomed everyone in the zone awkwardly – they talked with her about the supplies and together devised a plan to learn more about Amber's new “property” - regardless of what it really was and whether this information would be useful or not, it might help to train Kate's “covert” skills in a seemingly harmless situation. All their plans will have to rely on her now and it is critical for her to be more familiar with such games.

There wasn't much to be said about that and Amber hasn't answered yet – most likely being still asleep – so they had to wait here as well. They figured to postpone her trip to the warehouse for the afternoon – the chances that anybody would be walking around in the facility were smallest at such time. Maybe except the night, but it would be suspicious if she wandered around at strange hours...

So Kate just laid down and listened to some explanations about farming and food production – to better understand the needs of Amber's new “micros”. The explanations weren't very interesting, so Gary and Rachel evacuated the room to discuss some more unconventional ideas she had mentioned for what they could do next – Gary didn't want the group to hear about them. They still tried to listen in to the conversation, in case anything more important is mentioned in the “farming class” - although it quickly extended to other topics, such as shelter or medical facilities necessary for any non-primitive civilization.

The main problem with Rachel plans is that they are highly hypothetical – there are simply so many questions and uncertainties. With Kate being their only contact with the outside world, finding out anything about the current state of affairs in the facility will be problematic – the kids are mostly kept in the dark about what is going on and they can't just make Kate ask questions about things that she wasn't supposed to know.

And there are so many questions.. they're not sure who immigrated Rachel, for starters – there are clues pointing towards Erica, but there's no certainty. And if it was her – they have no idea whether she worked alone or with help from other mothers. They have no idea what triggered such action.. it might have been Rachel opening Gary's file or one of hundreds other things that she did – not to mention what other kinds of traps whoever did this may have set up in the systems...

There are so many unknowns when it comes to moving forward as well, they can't be sure who Kate can safely contact, they have no way of finding out what is Erica doing with the caretaker training and whether they could use it to their advantage or if it's actually more dangerous than promising... They don't even know whether the temp wristcom will work with the emergency IDs to operate the facility's mechanisms – Kate will try to find out about it later today, but before that many of their plans are just wishful thinking.

Alone in another conference room, Gary and Rachel lay stretched out in the chairs and have been talking about nothing in particular for almost an hour now, after running out of meaningful topics. Right now, Rachel elaborates on how terribly boring it was to be locked up in the facility for over a century...

“But you must have had something to do, I don't know.. anything?” - Gary interrupts.

“Hardly, we only had the dysfunctional terminals and each other.. but most functions were locked and there's only so many things you can do with the same four other people...”

“Well, I'm sure I'd be able to think of something...” - he suggests ambiguously.

“Oh, you men..” - Rachel gives him an irritated look - “only thinking about one thing... Besides, would it be so pleasant if you were stuck with four geek males for decades?”

“I'm still sure I'd figure out–” – she pokes him in the ribs, interrupting his chain of thoughts - “Hey! That's not a way to treat your superior..” - technically, Rachel isn't a member of the Service, but he grew to like joking about this when they were sitting alone here - “And you know what they say about lesbian couples?” - she squints her eyes, as if warning him - “Twice the boobs, double the fun!”

Rachel pokes him, this time harder and exclaims - “Yeah, that's very mature.. especially for a 'superior'...” - the last part in a mocking tone.

“Stop it, you're behaving like a teenager!” - Gary complains, knowing well that he is even worse.. - “But seriously, there must have been something you have been able to do.”

Rachel thinks about it for a dozen seconds and reluctantly responds: “You know, the usual things... But I wasn't that much into sexual gratification, I'm just not as horny as some other women” - she pauses and looks at him directly - “or men in general, for that matter.”

“Oh really?” - Gary moves as if trying to pat her, but she pokes him again in the ribs and he just falls back onto the chair defensively - “Now this.. this has to stop!” - he exclaims.

Rachel laughs and he joins her. After a minute long outburst – which seems to be much more than the “joke” deserved, she continues - “I think others were impacted by the isolation much more. Hey, do you remember Lauren? I mean.. Lauren Paige... from before the shutdown?”

Gary tries to recall the ancient times. Remembering any details of equipment and procedures from over century ago was hard enough, but to actually picture a person he might have known back then... The fact that ever since Kate's arrival, he was thinking of any remaining caretakers as some gigantic beings rather than living, breathing humans doesn't help. Has he known her?

He spent most of his time dealing with various technical issues and projects related to the facility, sure he would take a break once in a while.. but even then he would usually hang out with his fellow structural engies. It's not that they disliked others, just.. after decades of being nay-sayers and having to complicate everybody else's lives through most of their working time, it seemed like nobody actually wanted to hang out with them – so they adapted and didn't care about the rest.

Still, the name does ring a bell.. there were only a handful of women after the last waves of immigration following the shitty accident and he might have dealt with her in some assignment...

“I think.. was she that short blonde..” - he starts and Rachel confirms by nodding slightly - “that seemed to be a pain in the ass mainly to compensate her uselessness–”

“Hey, she was a great climate engineer–” - she complains, but Gary interrupts:

“.. back in the days when they needed any in the facility” – it was pretty quickly offloaded onto immigrated specialists. Or simply most of caretakers who were doing it immigrated themselves.

Rachel gives him an annoyed stare and counters - “Oh, come on.. they would still need people with all kinds of skill-sets...” - yeah, but that particular one would be useful once in a hundred years, that's probably why she was respecialized in.. something - “Also, she wasn't a pain in the ass, but a good listener and–”

“A great lay!” - Gary finally realizes that is what he remembers the name from.

Rachel stops in her explanation and is obviously irritated by his interruptions. Her angry look quickly turns into a more understanding expression - “Yeah, and that.. although you didn't have to be so blunt about it...”

Gary begins to recall some more details about his life in the facility. Up until now he only focused on the things relevant to Kate's inquiries and various problems at hand. It wasn't an easy life – even with the machinery fully functional.. he spent most of his time on work assignments and whatever left on engineering quirks, but others tended to get very bored. Apart from some occasional parties, they would spend most of their free time playing games and inside virtual worlds with random immigrated people to get a glimpse of the “normal” life. Of course that wasn't even close to actually experiencing it, but enough for most.

In any case, he wasn't a party animal and more of a loner – that's the main reason why he managed to withstand the facility's bleakness and boredom. Of course up until the Failure got him. But being stuck there for a century, without access to anything? Even he would have gone crazy – he can only imagine how it must have felt for the five women stuck in there. Of course they did get out and the situation changed quite drastically – although he is not sure whether it was so much better for them or just much worse for almost everyone else...

“Now that you mention it, she was hit pretty hard by the shutdown. She used to get around and suddenly there was no men that she could fuck” – Rachel explains – “Sure we helped each other, but she was often too annoying.. and it's not the same–”

“Oh, yeah..” - Gary responds with a wicked smile. She only stares at him with disagreement. But from what Gary recalls Lauren's “getting around” was an understatement. If he remembers correctly, she used to be basically the facility's biggest slut. Not that she had much competition at the time, but it was still an accomplishment – if one could call it that. She did try to keep it down when her boyfriend – or was it fiancé? - was still outside, but went all out when he immigrated. People used to joke that he literally ran away from her and it may have been just true. Lauren was said to be narcissistic enough to demand sex several times a day – poor guy, he concludes and speaks: “But there must have been some toys that she could help herself with, right?”

“That's the thing, there wasn't anything left and the assemblers wouldn't produce anything even remotely useful. Even when they would produce anything except rations and those damn uniforms” - Rachel pauses for a minute and then carefully picks up - “She did try to come up with something though–”

“A house-grown tinkerer, wasn't she?”

“Right.. something like that, I guess. She managed to put together.. some kind of a dildo, but it wasn't very helpful. Then she tried to make it vibrate with some parts that she salvaged from some nonfunctional machines...” - and she stops.

“I always knew that in a time of need, a true hero will rise to–“ - he jokes but gets interrupted by Rachel poking him.

“Stop teasing me! Besides, it wasn't pretty at all... She used.. something to coat it with. It was bulky and like.. volatile. It would send some random sparks and electric discharges–”

“Bad memories?” - Gary teases again.

“What? No.. god no... She asked everyone to try and help her with improving it, but I wasn't horny enough to risk being electrocuted.” - and seeing Gary's grin, she adds after a moment: “I know it may seem funny, but it wasn't at the time...”

Gary manages to refrain himself from laughing, but is simply unable to maintain a serious face. Trying not to be poked again, he demonstrate some compassion: “Okay, that must have been really hard” - and Rachel gives him the angry look again. He realizes how it may have been understood and quickly adds - “The life in the facility back then, I mean.”

She seems to be measuring him, as if to figure out if he's making a joke or not, but eventually nods and agrees: “Yeah, it was...” – after a moment of thinking, she picks up - “But the worst part is that the girls don't even know how everything used to be before the shutdown. They just...” - Rachel sharply stops and looks away.

While she thinks about something, Gary concludes that he isn't in the mood to discuss the meaning of life and decides to lighten it up by another sexist joke - “I completely agree, they haven't been able to enjoy a proper penetration!”

She turns her gaze back at him and complains: “You pig! Over time I forgot it's the only topic you men ever think about. Sex, sex and sex...”

Gary thinks how it isn't true – at least for him, usually – but he chooses not to deny, since it's not like he can support it with any arguments.. especially given his current behavior... But this sudden thought makes him wonder why is he behaving like this. It is just completely not his style. Well, at least she hasn't poked him this time. They sit in silence for a couple minutes and eventually Gary realizes that the metabolism treatment must be affecting him in this way.

Usually its use is very limited – only in very tough situations, so he was half-expecting his request for the team to be put on it to be denied. They needed the extra time to discuss the necessary things with Rachel, but on the other hand the body's reaction to the treatment tends to vary. Especially with nothing important to do, it must have been the extra energy and vitality from the hormonal mix they took yesterday, coupled with being alone here that pushed him to think about sexual things a lot. The Service uniform that Rachel wears doesn't emphasize her assets, but the fact that he is alone with a woman still helps.

Or is it something more? Ever since Rachel arrived, Gary has been acting and even thinking differently. He liked the life in the facility – that is why he hasn't immigrated voluntarily – but it feels like something more than even that. He thinks that she brought him out of this state of lethargy that he has been in since.. ever. Or at least since he arrived in the zone – he wasn't a very active before the failure, but he used to act on his own, make his own choices. And here he just.. almost always went with the flow, it seemed. She must have reminded him of the time that he acted more confidently and... probably brought back some frivolous games they used to have back outside.

Looking back at Rachel, he doesn't need to hear from her that she craves sex as well – it's written all over her now that they are alone, but he has been ignoring it, trying to act professionally. Actually, he realizes that he already failed at that and Rachel was right – he was behaving like some horny teenager and maybe this also affected her. But this isn't the time for this. Not when they have so many things to do and definitely not with Rachel barely getting acquainted with the new reality.

“Look, I think the treatment is acting on me, or both of us–”

“The treatment?” - she interrupts him.

“You know.. the high focus, low sleep therapy that we were put on yesterday. It sometime has.. side effects...”

“I don't recall ever agreeing or.. how was it even administered?”

Gary thinks for a moment. He hasn't actually asked anyone if they are fine with it... It was the Service's standard procedure and as soon as it was confirmed by the high-ups, it was simply implemented. It was strange how it seemed to be affirmed almost immediately – at least compared to the usual amount of time and paperwork he hear it should take, but he assumed that everybody would expect and understand it. Of course it was just another procedure that Rachel wasn't familiar with... And how she suddenly turned from jovial relaxation to nervous uncertainty – he should have at least mentioned this earlier. Is Rachel afraid that she was drugged?

Trying to comfort her, Gary explains, trying to sound calm and casual – “I think it was applied during our sleep. It's common procedure in times of emergency.. to energize the crew and make sure that as much time is spent on action, rather than sleep or rest” – it still seems like she is worried and so he adds after a moment – “It's mostly harmless.. the whole team was put on it and everybody is fine, as you have seen already.”

“The team? What team?” - she inquires, still tense.

“Well, everyone that has direct communication with Kate or helps with the planning. We just wanted to be sure that we've got enough time to talk with you and...” - he thinks about it for another moment and decides to come clean - “Actually, it was my call and I realize now that I should have mentioned something. It's hard to remember all the things that may be.. surprising for an outsider.”

He doesn't want to go into the details and he certainly understated the treatment impact on the body's metabolism – it was far from “common” and “harmless”, but he doesn't want Rachel to worry too much. They already have so many other things...

Fortunately, she seems somewhat relieved – he considers explaining some more about it, but she responds - “No, it's fine. I just.. was surprised a bit, I suppose.”

That she surely was – Gary concludes in his head and decides not to worry her now. Maybe he should ask if she wants to stay on it in the evening? It seems like a reasonable time to mention it again.

In any case, she continues - “I guess that explains why I'm not tired with so little sleep.”

“Yeah, that's the whole point of the treatment” - he says half-laughing to lighten the atmosphere and she smiles as well.

After a moment of consideration, Rachel continues her inquiry: “So.. what other 'side effects' are there?”

Technically, the increased concentration and awareness are the main reason why the therapy is applied rather than side effects, but he ignores that detail and answers – “Well, as with any high metabolism states, agitation and stress tend to surface from time to time.. especially with people that aren't used to it” - it is kind of obvious what it means in her case - “It's never a problem though, at least not that I heard it was.”

She nods and turns her head to look at Kate, considering something. Gary tries to think of a different topic they could discuss, but before he finds anything reasonable, she looks back at him and asks: “Why have you even mentioned it, then?”

Is she fishing for contradiction, interrogating him? A series of questions like this is starting to make Gary nervous as well, but he assumes that she must simply be trying to understand what is going on and he cannot blame her for that. But how to explain that he wanted to warn her about him feeling horny? Not that she hasn't noticed that already, but...

“It's just that..” - looking into her blue eyes.. is it getting into him again? He decides to be plain about it - “I just thought it might be good to mention it before anything happened” - yeah, right.. still it is better to explain it now rather than after an intercourse – if she was really up for it, that is.

Rachel nods ambiguously and sits in silence. Gary is unsure of how to continue – or even whether he should. At the same time he is grateful that she hasn't investigated the treatment deeper. Nor has she commented the 'anything' that he implied that might 'happen'.

“And why would that matter?” - she asks instead.

After a moment of consideration, he responds: “I noticed how.. eager you seemed to be and I figured that engaging in sexual activities probably isn't something that you'd want to do. I just didn't want you to get into something that...” - Gary stops as he notices Rachel moving her chair closer. Why are those damn things so easy to move...

“What makes you think that I wouldn't want that?” - she asks with a kinky voice.

Gary thinks how there isn't anything that he can respond, really. They are two adults that presumably could involve themselves in whatever they wanted, but.. perhaps not while on the job and not in the conference room right in front of... Turning to the side, he looks the looming form of Kate far in the distance beyond the windows. They should be focused on preparing her to deal with any problems that may arise...

“Don't worry, she won't notice...” - Rachel teases him by stating the obvious fact. At this distance, Kate could barely distinguish the prefabricated office buildings they are sitting in, let alone their forms inside. But having sex right there in the conference room.. they are alone, but it still feels a bit wrong... Rachel leans forward on her chair next to him and adds - “Don't tell me that all this foreplay was just to tease me.”

He doesn't think about it much and leans forward towards her. Their lips meet and she returns the kiss. As they part away, she attempts to move onto Gary's chair, but it quickly becomes impractical, since the seats obviously aren't made for this. Gary looks around and the only place to continue seems to be the big table at the center of the room. He considers moving somewhere more private.. or just some place with a bed or a sofa at least, but it might be conspicuous if they left and besides... he wants Rachel now.

Gary tries to suggest her to change position, but she is busy kissing and trying to undress him, so he just picks her up and moves onto the table. He is surprised by her fairly light build – 100, maybe 110 pounds. Most people in the zone are on one of the fitness medical therapies, which usually optimize metabolism for calories intake and maintain low body fat, but still preserve decent amount of muscle. The most fashionable look of the last two or three decades – following the slightly chubby and super-thin fads, although this one is more healthy and balanced, so it is also widely recommended.

Of course Rachel was never on any of those fitness programs and medbeds in the facility are much simpler, which left her around twenty pounds lighter than this zone average for the height – Gary figures while helping her undress him and then herself. When her nude torso is exposed, Rachel seems so small and fragile. It's almost impossible to imagine that only several weeks ago, she was out there dominating the landscape of some zones, just what Kate does here now.

Gary has a clear view of the girl's gigantic form through the windows of the room – distant and looming, like some terrain feature. It feels a bit wrong – she's practically just a girl by his age standards – but this sight makes him even more aroused as he and Rachel embrace in foreplay. She is clearly rusty, probably by the lack of practice during the recent decades, but Gary ignores that and prepares to fill her. He removes her panties and finds that she is very wet and ready for him. Gary continues to caress her breasts crowned by erect nipples as he enters her and begins to hump.

Although the focus treatment made him more easily excited, it does not work as an aphrodisiac and he has to work his way towards orgasm. But he moves in and out at most a couple dozen times before her vagina clenches around his cock already. Just before cumming, he thinks that she must have been really horny to climax so quickly...

As they lay on their backs on the table, he thinks whether he should try to clean it up and how, or perhaps call in some service person... He doesn't want to waste too much time on it, so he settles on the latter option. Still, he can already see the look they will get from whoever comes to clean it up or – even worse – what the old man may say if it reaches him, but.. Gary simply doesn't care about it right now.

He looks left to see Rachel's glistening form, moist with sweat as she relaxes after the quick intercourse. She lays there with her eyes closed, motionless, facing the ceiling. It reminds Gary the sight of Kate when he first approached her – of course the scale was completely different and he had to stretch his skycar to its limits just to get to the girl's ear, while Rachel is quite easily reachable, but...

He just cannot stop himself from thinking how much everything would be different if he had arrived in a different zone. How he could have become a subject of another caretaker - Lauren's toy or whatever others were doing with “their” “micros” - or perhaps he would have landed in one of Rachel's chambers. For years she would be his giant protectress, the figure to gently move across the horizon.

At least he assumes that she was acting like that in her zones. The stories they got from the outside were sparse, but always depicted her as the most considerate and helpful of the caretakers. Perhaps they would have figured it out sooner? Come up with some way of undoing whatever happened in the failure, or shutdown, or whatever they call it? If he could contact her earlier, instead of having to wait over two decades more for Kate to arrive here? Of course all those possibilities don't matter now, especially since Rachel was also immigrated and is stuck here with the rest of them.

But still.. it does make him think. They haven't been able to get much from her so far – it was mostly small details and various things that she told Kate. They still don't understand so many things, for instance why exactly has she kept the kids unaware of the fact it was humans in the zones – wouldn't “school” be supposed to explain things like that? They got the impression it was some kind of pressure – or threat even – from others, but then why would the mothers bother or care about that? They had some ideas, but it was only speculations.

And since Rachel was much harder to read, they couldn't just figure out her emotions – she has hardly been showing any in the first place. Even now, most of what he heard from her were mild groans and moans... They haven't spent much time trying to analyze her, it simply doesn't seem that she may be a threat. Her mentor relationship with Kate aside, she understands her situation and seems to behave rationally.

There is probably an automated emotion analysis running on her to learn more and make sure she remains sane – just like everybody else on the team, including Gary. He doesn't know any results of such analysis – he heard that only the old man and a couple of advisors receive full intel. None of it matters much though, or at least they are all far less important than Kate's emotions and feelings and that is what the research efforts have been focusing on so far.

Gary thinks how far they went and whether Crawford was right when he warned him about being too open and progressive with driving her discoveries and emotions. It did work well so far, but in the long run it can be dangerous. He doesn't think Kate would be willing to knowingly hurt people, but the others seemed to be much worse... Is it just a matter of time for her too?

Rachel doesn't seem to think that Kate would get any 'abominable ideas' – as the old man put it – but she is definitely less optimistic about everything than Gary. He attributed it to her being freshly immigrated, but.. is there more to it as well? And what were those atrocities that Crawford implied she may have committed anyway... He doesn't need a personalized software to figure out that she is hiding something. Or things.

His thoughts are cut short when Rachel opens her eyes and looks at him. A slight smile breaks her usually grave expression, as he speaks:

“That was...” - but halts abruptly. Gary quickly gets tired of waiting for the continuation.

“Wonderful? Incredible? Amazing? Magnificent? Awesome? Remarkable?” - he keeps suggesting, but stops when she squints her eyes and responds:

“Don't get self-complacent, it's just..”

“Yes?”

She thinks about it for a long moment and finally adds ambiguously - “I guess there was some truth in Amy's annoying grumbling that it's not easy to substitute those pheromones...”

Gary isn't certain what she may mean, but quickly realizes it must be a reference to their lesbian attempts after the failure. Even though it doesn't sound very generous, he decides to take it as a sort of compliment. He is usually more refined in his love-making, but their current location and situation made his attempts awkward and even a bit shy. Not to mention that she came so fast that he hardly had any time to show off.

“You seemed to be much more enthusiastic during the sex” - he comments.

“Oh, well...” - she smiles again, this time wider - “It was great.. and thank you” - this compliment feels much better and Gary raises slightly to lean and kiss her.

“Wanna go again?” - he asks afterwards.

Rachel looks slightly surprised and responds - “This quickly? It's been like.. only ten minutes...”

He thinks it was more like fifteen or twenty, but instead of correcting her, he happily bluffs - “Remember the extra energy from the treatment?”

It wasn't among its effects, but Gary concludes that it may mitigate the negative impression she got earlier.

“Oh..” - she ponders briefly - ”Maybe it wasn't so bad after all...”

Gary raises and thinks whether they should be continuing this, but it already seems too late and another round of sex won't change much between them. He suddenly remembers that she arrived only recently and:

“Hey, just to be on the safe side.. you're on stoppers, right?” - he wasn't sure if they were using them in the facility and the pregnancy might impact her performance, which... He stops his line of thought as she squints her eyes, clearly enraged by the insensitive question. “I wasn't sure if–” – but she puts a finger on his lips, suggesting to shut up.

Right.. it may not be the most appropriate topic. Gary starts caressing her again rather than engaging in further discussion, trying not to humiliate himself any further. Luckily she wasn't displeased by it and they resume their love making session.

He thinks that perhaps Rachel wasn't entirely satisfied earlier, because she may have been expecting different handling. Or rather that she may have been used to something else. He wonders how they used to “help each other” back in the facility. Especially the hornier ones...








Lauren is surprised to discover Erica's sudden change of mind. It is strange how only yesterday she would absolutely deby the Lauren's price to have a free hand with the seconds, none of her games and help dealing with others about it. But mainly Rachel, who would most likely be angry about Lauren manipulating her dear “schoolers”. The others wouldn't be problematic anyway, since Lisa doesn't care about her own daughters and Amy is busy with her “big-hearted” colonization – but apparently it is a problem for Erica. How did she put it? “In a life?” Of course she saw no problem in herself having manipulated the firsts however she pleased... What a hypocritical bitch!

Or was it the other part of her price – to include Andrea in the training in one of the first two batches? Erica didn't seem to have a problem with Amy's similar demand for her daughters. Lauren suspects it has something to do with the ratings, but starting training is one thing and why on Earth would Erica want to actually hack their permissions fully in. Whatever game she is playing, Lauren likes it less and less... In any case, now she has a positive answer and although she would like to see that promise being spoken in the presence of all mothers, the mesg will do for now.

“Oh yes, keep it up” - she instructs the servants pleasuring her softly, as part of her morning routine. It took them some time to regain confidence after the little “accidents” with the girls – Lauren was getting shit about that for weeks. Whatever, she doesn't want them to feel completely neglected, but what does she care anyway? Or perhaps should she have requested the seconds to behave more carefully?

Obviously getting her own massage back then was a mistake – it distracted her and caused some unnecessary losses. Lauren made sure to clarify that she didn't want to seem uncivil by undressing right in the middle of their meeting, but she can also understand the poor fuckers. The other mothers were at least somewhat understanding, unlike the girls – and for the poor inhabitants to realize they aren't much more than some treat? Especially coupled with her explanations back then...

Quite the ego crusher.

Not that the people should have any in their position, but... Lauren sometimes can almost feel bad for them. Over time, she was realizing how Rachel may have been right to enforce some limits – it wasn't just the fact they were running out of them, but it simply isn't necessary to kill the inhabitants to enjoy their time.

But some of Rachel's earlier proposals were outrageous, to leave the zones entirely? Like she wasn't enjoying herself at the beginning as well... The sudden change of heart she had after a couple years was very noble, but.. hell, the facility is simply soo boring. Not to mention the lack of hope for anything more than this. Sure, Lauren wouldn't mind cultivating some civilized zones to have a meaningful chat, but on the other hand how can she have a serious discussion with somebody so tiny, that she cannot even see? Not to mention that she always gets distracted...

But Rachel's ideas.. they were usually so abstract and disconnected from reality that they knew – and that was probably why nobody else cared. And this way was so much better – for instance right now the poor suckers seem to be having a ball on her clit. For the first time in a couple weeks Lauren thinks she can actually orgasm.

“More on the left nip” - she orders. Years ago, when she moved away from Lisa's ways, Lauren used to tease them with taunts of taking so long to satisfy her, but she quickly figured it was pointless. The bugs most likely perceive her as a monster anyway. As long as they are useful, she doesn't even care about what they talk back. Not that she has to even listen – “Oh yeah.. yeah, fuck.. harder, yeah...”

A couple minutes later in the post-orgasm relaxation, Lauren thinks about the girls – maybe she could have some fun with one of them? The mothers used to had plenty of fun together when they were stuck in the facility, but.. they were all all tired of each other. A century can do that to a person. It was a miracle they haven't murdered each other!

Or perhaps it would be better if they did? At least they wouldn't have to combat boredom with such pathetic distractions? It seems so hopeless – and how long can they keep it up? Perhaps it is a good idea to keep a hobby, like Amy colonizing or Erica dominating the firsts? The three seconds should be just fine for Lauren – so simple and tangible. It is a bit late, since they have their own zones, but it doesn't matter really – she can still control them easily...

But why is Erica trying to rush this whole thing? Nothing for a three years since the last time she even brought the training up and suddenly everything needs to be set in a matter of days. At least Lauren got what she wanted, so why bother. But right now, she wouldn't mind to know what kind of game has Erica got in mind.

.. and maybe some ass-drilling, even though a lot of machinery was involved rather than just humans, it felt pretty nice when they did it the last time...








Erica cannot stop thinking whether she is doing the right thing with this training. If she missed something, it could blow up in her face. Everything is coming together nicely, especially with Rachel out of the picture – but there is still a number of questions. Like how will the girls react or will the retraining even work like they suspect it should – she will need to see and adapt to the outcomes of intermediate plans.

In any case, the die is cast and unless she can turn at least two girls to full caretaker status, nothing is going to work...

And the last decade she has spent on pushing others into this position would be lost. Worse yet, they could all lose any trust in Erica or even punish her in so many possible ways, with the worst option being a taste of her own medicine... But nobody else seems to have noticed the possibility of immigrating anybody now. Ever since Erica found it almost two decades ago, it has changed her life – she finally had a new purpose.

It was just after they discovered how to enter the zones and barely figured out a way to communicate with the people. Everybody else looked for answers to the shutdown, but she didn't understand any of the systems. She was always more of a peoples person. That's why she has always been more of an informal leader of the pack – but this...

She still tried to visit new zones to ask if anybody knows something about the facility. And in one zone they did – not quite the information the others were looking for, but it still proved more than useful. Especially two weeks ago when Erica was able to actually make some use of this knowledge. Of course she made sure the programmers – or whoever they were – wouldn't tell nobody else about it, especially that it has a potential of taking control over everything around her in an entirely new way.

It feels so good, especially now when it's finally within her grasp, after so many years of planning and careful games and having to deal with those annoying bitches. Of course back then it was just a rough plan. Everything changed when she discovered how they can have kids... and what a surprise! Who would have thought it could be that simple – of course the others wouldn't be manipulated as easily as their daughters and without three votes she can't do shit around the facility.

If only Amy and Lauren wouldn't insist on including their daughters in the program. They were probably the worst of all girls, rating-wise. Except Kate, but Erica cannot use her – the seconds aren't trained properly, not to mention that Rachel is still alive in that zone. Erica doesn't want to check her status too often – not to leave too easily noticeable audit trail – but it is beginning to look a little disturbing. She needs to make sure that the second has enough fun with her micros not to notice even when she kills Rachel, or else...

Erica assures herself that there is simply no way how the newly immigrated mother could even convince any zone inhabitants to believe her, not to mention get attention of her new “owner”. Still, in hindsight, Erica concludes it would be better to immigrate Rachel to one of her own zones, even despite the risk of being detected. Or at least somebody more reliable.. like Jolene or April. Even Nicole wouldn't be bad, if only she could stop bitching about everything. She will need to do this with whoever comes next, but how to arrange this?

She wanted to pick Courtney and Kimberly due to their ratings, how ironic it was their mother to be Erica's first victim. Maybe if she could pick Courtney and Andrea? Three would be too much to control in the first batch and besides, she already explained the others how she only wants to pick two for now. She can ignore that, like most other things... But no, Erica needs to experiment with Courtney first and see how that goes. There's still so many unknowns, after all.

But if that works, then she could get rid of Lauren next and work on Kate and Kimberly – the second and third best ratings among the girls, respectively. Or maybe she should silence Amy? To avoid having to pick her daughters... It all depends on how the girls behave and Erica will need to figure it out along the way. But the most important thing is how the system will behave, with a new caretaker registered and a demise of another one...





Chapter End Notes:
I hope the wait wasn't too bad, especially given that we all already know where everything is going – Kate will find out what the people in her zone have been hiding from her and will start killing everybody, Erica will immigrate everyone else to make a cake (the only surprising part, yes) and the Canadians will come in at the last minute to save the day. Just like I suggested in the notes to 17th chapter – but it really was obvious, wasn't it? Or well, something like that, at least – there may be some slight modifications, but it should be more or less as described above. Either way – Gary is as good as dead at this point, he even dreams about what is about to happen to him. No, wait, that scene has been cut. But still – nothing saving him now!

And yes, I postponed the details of drilling to another chapter - or better yet, let's make a series out of it, yes! I guess it won't spoil anything to outline that it will be damp, dark and... actually, there is nothing more to it - why even bother about such silly and boring idea, forget it...

But as always – let me know what You think!
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