Encompassing Reality Read online

  Encompassing Love

  Book Three of the Encompassing Series

  By Richard Lord

  © Copyright 2016

  CHAPTER 1

  “Who am I to you?” -- from the Book of model KRY-1-CT-A1

  “Solipsism must be the truth because it took billions of years for us to understand we. It will take billions more for you to understand me.” -- from the book of Phillip

  “The universe chose him to be able to do what he did because he was designed to be responsible with the power. It was understood he would be wonton enough to use it. If he was perfect the universe would never have existed and therefore there would be nothing to make a decision. Yet, there was another.” --- from the book of Gina.

  “So much has happened. We write to explain how it all came to this. I write, as we were all told to do. I am complicit in this because I understand how important it is, yet I myself tried to kill him once. Yes, I loved him then and even now.” -- from the book of Elixabeth.

  “It was all of them. I am not sure which they ask me to write about. I am not sure whom was whom. I’ll speak because I saw a lot and some things must be known. Don’t do damage with what I write. What they all did was for us. I don’t want anything I mention to disrespect that.” - miscellaneous letter of confession.

  “I pieced together the moments, I saw the testimonies and the Books of the Dead. His descendants. It made no sense to put them in chronological order, given whom he was. One day I will come back here. For now, I learn inside her. It is what he wanted. Sic itur ad astra.” -- from the Book of Destiny

  He was remembering an echo of a memory. A girl he must have known. The way her lip trembled slightly on their first kiss. He remembered the way she breathed in tight and then how she breathed while her legs grabbed tightly to pull him in and her thighs squeezed to welcome him. The smell of her hair, her body, all parts of her. Her breath on his neck. The way her skin felt and the way she touched him. He could hear her voice as she maneuvered herself above him and whispered to him while he took in her pleading breasts, tugging at her buttocks to feel all of her. He realized he was getting lost in a memory he couldn’t capture. He shook his head. It felt important, but it was vague and yet so extremely intense.

  It was hot. The stench of sweat was everywhere. The place was loud with a very mechanical rhythm and notes that set him on edge, but he had to eat. It had taken so much to get so far. It was a harsh awakening to be in another time, living another life. He tried not to think of the fact that, in his infancy. He had been hidden away and then left for dead in the desert above. Strangely, that was a place only miles away from where he sat, but he had taken the long way around to avoid that memory. Instead, he concentrated on why he was here. He had come to learn, but felt as if he had seen enough. Something in his mind made him stay a little while longer and he had learned to listen to that inner voice.

  As he ate, what he knew was the best this city had to offer, disgusted at the concept, he looked over at what he once would have called a bar. It was more of a steel platform with another below it jutting out enough to make sitting at it comfortable yet convenient enough to take food orders from behind, quickly. He grinned as he thought, “economy”. He couldn’t judge if the place was considered crowded or if he was just around more people than he liked to be. He stared out what he would have called a window, but it was just an opening in a vast city of metal and biological waste. He looked around for a distraction. Nothing. He was bored, but he did like filling his stomach with something other than itself.

  She watched the odd man. She wasn’t sure how to describe him. He was not like the others who came through this place. He was physically larger in many ways. She noted that. He was not tall and therefore not awkward at all. She watched his movements and him turning his head to note the environment and knew he wasn’t from the area. She was curious. She watched as he ate and felt a pang of hunger. She considered wooing him into sharing his food, but she could tell by the way he was hovering over it that he wouldn’t be so kind. She continued to watch and noted that with half left uneaten, he sat back, holding the food in his hand and looked around again. She could tell he was irritated about something. That was her cue.

  “Hey!” She said as she approached his table. She watched him frown as someone bumped him from behind. She caught a glimpse of something in his eye and she began to reconsider her advance. As she continued to put one foot so delicately in front of the other towards him she thought to herself, “Carpe Diem”

  He looked up noting she knew basic Latin. “You want some of this?” He held the food up. Then in a casual way let it fall back to the table.

  She replied, “I’m good. It does look tasty. I’ve never had it. Too rich for my blood.” She wanted all of it, but she kept quiet for now.

  He nodded and sat back more casually while he looked at her.

  She noted the awkward silence and raced through her mind for a way to fill the void. Then she thought of the one thing that always worked. “You know I’m a bio, right?”

  “No.” He turned to look out of the window over the pack he had set down on the windowsill.

  She wondered about that reaction. The males always wondered about bio females. He didn’t seem to care. She added, “I suppose it’s not a big shocker to you. You look…” She suddenly realized she was at a loss for words that wouldn’t offend and gasped at herself.

  “Old?” He finished her sentence for her, looking at her eyes for a reaction.

  She didn’t know what to say so she pointed to a pile of rubbish and said, “So I take it this is your first time here. That over there is the place. I suppose that’s why you came.”

  “Nope.” He replied, but he turned to look where she was pointing anyway. It was a huge heap that was larger than the tallest building in the hole he referred to as a city. He noted that fact. He had learned long ago, societies, no matter what their foundation came from tended to make their tallest buildings the things they cherished most. In this city, it was the martyr that made them proud. He considered they had good reason to feel that way. If it were not for their martyr, they would all still be on “assembly lines” waiting for their next orders. Those had ranged from kill a rat to more horrid concepts. They had not been in control of their own thoughts. They had been efficient at lowering the number of biological beings on the planet. He knew that. He shuddered at the thought of the ones specifically designed to be Hunters. For such a strange place, he had to admit that it had produced efficient builders. He wasn’t completely against the hive mind concept, but he preferred to think for himself.

  Noting that he was waning from the conversation she had intended, she asked, “So why did you come here?” As she said it, she looked down at the ragged cloths and skins he had wrapped around him to protect himself from the desert sun and the very cold desert nights.

  He shrugged. “Always wondered.” She was actually interested. At worst, he would help kill the boredom. She turned to grab a barrel to use as a stool. As she did he looked directly at her very small but very round derriere. He added, “Nice model!”

  She turned and looked back at him. She knew the look, but he wore it so naturally it was somewhat frightening and somewhat alluring at the same time. “I told you, I’m a bio!” Regardless of her tone, she pulled the barrel closer to his than she had initially intended.

  As she sat, she looked up at him and noticed he was grinning at her. It wasn’t the normal type of grin that she had become used to. She was used to excitement and wonder grins at the fact she was a bio. This was more of a…she tried to place the words in her mind, but could not. It wasn’t a creepy grin, so she wasn’t afraid of him, but it was not something she had seen before. She knew the stories
of some models destructing other models. As one of very few bio’s she only knew how she felt about it. She always tried to understand the rest of the people around her. The synths. They had such a different view of everything. She thought back to a conversation with her mother who was so suddenly broken out of her malaise on the line when she was pregnant with her. What she didn’t tell anyone, ever, because they would not believe her, was that the martyr used to talk to her mother while she was on the line. Why he chose her to talk to, she still couldn’t guess. Her mother spent the rest of her days wondering why he chose her to explain things to, for so long, before he made the big change happen.

  He sat forward and asked, “So what makes you a bio, as you call it, and not a synth?”

  She answered, “My mother was not programmed to have me. I was random.”

  He sat back even further as he looked at her and asked, “Can you read?”

  She looked at him oddly. “That’s what scribes are for. Why would I know how to read, I’m not a scribe.”

  Then she got a strange look in her eye as she considered his question more in-depth and responded, “Can you?”

  “Much. Some is rubbish.” His eyes lowered to the table again and he picked up the food and took another bite.

  “You don’t look like a scribe to me.” She noted. She also watched as he took a bite of the food that had attracted her in the first place. She noticed his eyes were watching her breasts and she was glad she was making some impression. At that thought, she noticed her own nipples harden and looked for a reaction to her reaction from him. She grinned. She watched as his eyes went down her body to between her legs and she carefully stood to make more of an impression as she moved her hips closer to his face while standing. She noted he put down the food and was watching her and she moved quickly.

  “Bad idea!” He said, holding her wrist and staring into her eyes.

  She looked at him. She knew she was faster than others. She wondered, “How did he catch my wrist?” She had been moving at the coin bag. She looked back and said, “I’ve just never seen one so big. I was curious. I wasn’t…” She trailed off as she realized he already knew perfectly well she intended to steal the bag. She sat down, putting herself at his mercy. Something she never imagined herself doing for anyone she had ever met in life. She wondered to herself, “I am to be punished, but by whom? I don’t know this man, but I want him to teach me.”

  He reached over his shoulder, grabbed the coin bag and leaned towards her. He grabbed her by the back of her head and whispered in her ear, “Keep a secret. That’s your punishment.” He held firm to her as he rubbed the bag under her nose.

  She looked at him, “How did he know what I was thinking?”

  He replied to her thought, “I get the general idea. It doesn’t work the way it did when…” It was his turn to trail off as he looked at her with sorrow.

  “When?” She stayed in the position she was poised in, by him, but her eyes looked up to see his wander.

  He shook off the thought and continued, “So your mother was a synth?”

  “Well, yes and no. She was a BioSynth.” She replied and he let go of the back of her head. She felt very warm between her legs in a way other men did not make her feel.

  He gestured for her to continue.

  She looked up at him, not sure it was a great idea to seize this day, but wanting to please him and also wanting to know something about him. “She was a living specimen from the herd. She was chosen for the process and was partially through it when I was created. Shortly after that, the martyr came.” She flipped her hand out as if that was all she had to say and then she added a question, “What is the secret you want me to keep?”

  He looked around suspiciously and then responded, “I’ll tell you, when I think of something I shouldn’t.”

  She giggled at that response and he held up his hand with the food in it to take a bite. Then he handed it to her and said, “This isn’t payment, this isn’t pity. You have much to tell me. So you owe me your secrets if you eat this.”

  She looked at him and grabbed the food and started biting at it and chewing as if she had seen the sun for the first time. The fact was that she had seen the sun, many times and she always came back down here.

  “We used to call them rats.” He said.

  With her mouth full, chewing and tasting she said, “We have those. What do you mean ‘used to’?”

  He realized he should not have used the term. He also realized that she picked up on his slight disdain for her way of life. He looked at her face and thought about what it must be like to have been born in a society of synths that were suddenly free to think their own thoughts. Then he thought, she’s not that different than them, but she is a bio. There was no question about it. She had the curiosity. He looked over her shoulder and the slight curvature of the curls in her hair and noticed three of the same model types. They were made for close combat. Quick action, very communicative with each other, vague to everyone else. He noticed all three of them were trading looks at him. Then he saw the one in the center look directly at him and he knew. Standing quickly he grabbed the coin bag and threw it at the first of the three and turned left as that one was advancing. He placed a very hard uppercut to the jaw and with his elbow came down on the jawbone of the third to his right.

  She looked down at the coin bag and noted that it spilled out only gold. She realized it was a decoy bag. Besides conductivity, gold was useless. Far beyond gold was silver for conductivity, but you had to know the right people to sell it. That brought on a whole new set of issues one had to live with. She had seen others go down that path of desperation and had long ago decided it wasn’t for her. She dealt in the most common trade. Lead. It was the most in demand metal of all. It was known to stop the effects of radiation because it was such a bad conductor.

  He looked back at her and grabbed her wrist. “You’ve come a long way in two decades. I’m leaving. You coming with?”

  She looked up as if awoken from a spell. He was a fraud. He wasn’t rich at all. He only had a bag of gold. She was angry at the ruse, but then she considered the boredom and let her body relax as she followed his escape from the three. She knew he was trouble. She liked to avoid trouble. She wondered why she was letting herself get roped into trouble with him. Then she realized, part of her heart would always wonder and she wanted to know who he was.

  CHAPTER 2

  “It seemed ridiculous, at first, that he would lose his own freedom, his own life, just to save my life and ensure my freedom. Over time I came to understand.” -- from the Book of model KRY-1-CT-A1

  “So you’re being changed, but you held out longer than the rest. Your family, your clan, they are strong.” Phillip said to her, knowing she couldn’t respond vocally, but he could hear her thoughts and reactions and that was good enough for him. “I’m sorry I am away sometimes. I try to get back as soon as possible. I suppose you know by now I can effect time, but the problem is that I effect it. Maybe it’s the solution. I am not sure, so I try not to mess with it. If I could stop what they are doing to you, all by myself, I would. I don’t know how. Yet.” Phillip stood and kissed her belly. “Blessings on your offspring. May she be as strong as her mother and twice the adventurer!” He knew she couldn’t move. He could hear her crying in his head. Phillip simply did not know what to do. He could tell she knew he did not have the answer. He looked at her and then he clicked.

  He saw a man dressed in rags talking to another man on a porch. He concentrated on their thoughts. Then Phillip knew that it wasn’t Solstice, it was Stephen. He tried to think back to them, but they were concentrating too hard on keeping their conversation private. Phillip clicked again. “Illumna, I am sorry for your fate, but I need a favor…”

  “I got it Phillip.” Illumna responds in his mind. “I agree. I’m with you on this, but you can’t think about it. Eventually they will realize what you plan to do. If Brian spent all of that time planning his move and yet somehow he’s
assured himself that his own idea would fail, you can bet he will stop you if he guesses what you want to do.”

  “So Brian is him?” Phillip asked.

  “You already knew that Phillip. Just go with your gut. For now, you should click back to who you are thinking about. You can’t be here. Time is confusing, Phillip, but you’ll figure it out. I’m sorry for your fate.” Illumna thinks to him with more emotion than she has shown to others.

  “I see. How will I learn all of this?” Phillip asks.

  “It takes time. Be wary and don’t abuse your skill. Just because you can do a thing does not mean that you should. For me, I’ll see you soon. For the you that you are now, it will be awhile, but you will do fine, Phillip. You are brave, sometimes foolish, but overall, you learn quickly.”

  Phillip clicked. Then he watched as the machines dosed model KRY-1-CT-A1 through one of the many tubes running into her body and out of it. He knew it could be one of several things, amino acids, hormones, etc. Some designed to get a reaction and some designed to repress other reactions. He knew now that Solstice was not the one doing this to her, but it was her mind that made all of this possible. He couldn’t hold back the hatred he felt for her, even if she wasn’t directly responsible. Then he considered how much Illumna had been involved. It was strange he made a secret pact with Illumna. He had heard Illumna’s mind and knew how deeply she loved Solstice. That love that was immortal. He considered moving forward in time to see if his actions had a good or bad effect. He supposed that Solstice had done that often. The problem was, it didn’t mean much. With all of his family line and those of the other family, he realized that what he saw did not mean that was what would happen. They could change it. He also realized that his quest to take out Stephen was a bit hypocritical. Stephen planned on stopping the changes. Phillip couldn’t be against that, he was against the way in which Stephen planned to make that happen. If just one of them went back and farted, there would be a tsunami of change in which way the wind blew for the next few thousand years. Considering his own thought, Phillip made a choice to be far more careful about clicking in time.