Cenerea, 3rd planet from the star Letria, Regalius,

Central Region Capitol, The Homeland,

Dignitary Housing Complex 5,

Current Day

Mother Arcturis made it perfectly clear at the Arcturan compound. Elle was in danger. It was either get control of Jay or die. Nothing else mattered. The Arcturan shook her head in annoyance.

For Elle had already sunk so low she was considering living Jay's 'simpler life'. There were even times where she took a rental transport over to Darvon Street and just sat there imagining her nightmarish life in that gray house. In fact, the young redhead could almost see their muddy kids running around its tiny yard. Regardless, even that was no longer an option. It was all or literally nothing. She figured she should be at least somewhat happy this was never going to be, but that emotion seemed to be eluding her for the moment.

"Damn him!" Elle yelled aloud. "Why did she have to fall in love with him? Why did he have to take that Instructor's job? Why? Why? Why? Why? Why? Fucking why???" she wondered. Jay had screwed shit up and now she finds out she could be killed if her former fiancé did not do as told  and go to work for the Homeland Military and marry her, as well. She felt her rage beginning to boil over once more. It had been doing that quite regularly. It just always felt so much better to just let it out. Elle gripped the edges of her favorite makeup mirror, lifted it from the table, and nearly threw it across the room in frustration. She shook it over her head and then roughly set it back down. The reflective glass tumbled over on its side from the forceful action.

"Fuck!" she screamed as she took her arm and swept it aggressively across the top of the vanity, slinging the mirror and the rest of the table's contents across the room. This time the mirror exploded against the wall, shattering into several jagged shards. Elle's heart beat rapidly and her breath was heavy. She wrapped her arms together, threw them on the glass surface of the table, and buried her face in the pocket they created. She sobbed uncontrollably for several minutes. Her tears ran down her arms and made small pools on the glossy surface.

Elle lifted her head slowly and sniffed. She could see her awful reflection in the hazy surface of her vanity. Her mascara was running in black lines down her face. She looked like a street whore. "Alright, get control of yourself. You are going to rectify this once and for all, Elle Arcturis!" she mumbled to herself.

Elle thought about the message Jay left. It was a very vague, somewhat cryptic message on her comm unit indicating they needed to talk. She took that as a good sign. The man, however, did not say when they were supposed to meet, but as of right now, Elle decided this was going to be as good a day as any. She could not wait any longer.

Elle took a shower and slipped on her sexiest lingerie. She found her tightest white miniskirt. Strapped on her nicest heels. Her best makeup. His favorite perfume. She fixed her hair just the way he liked and at the last minute, took off her panties before she headed out the door for good measure.

She easily hailed a rental transport. It skidded to a stop practically before she had raised a finger. She slid into the backseat and told the driver, "114 Darvon Street."

She caught the driver adjusting the mirror trying to catch a glimpse of Arcturan paradise. With her anger satiated for the moment, Elle decided to be generous today, so she let him have his view. She even did him one better and hiked up one of her legs in an undignified manner. She had to quickly correct herself because her little exhibition nearly got them killed. Elle snickered at the thought that this rental driver was going to be rubbing one out as soon as she exited his transport.

As a parting gift for her overexcited Homeland chauffeur, Elle made sure she stretched her legs out wide when stepping out of the vehicle. He was so grateful for the show; he only charged her half rate and gave her his   personal contact card. He told her he would drive her wherever she needed to go whenever. "Day or night. Just call", he said, and sped off to find some privacy.

Elle was in a much better mood, now. She strode up to the door of the quaint little shithole and tapped the security panel with a bright red fingernail. "Hello?" she inquired. Elle heard people walking along the sidewalk and turned to watch an elderly man take a purse to his head, assaulted by his gray-haired wife. Evidently, he was caught checking her out as they walked by. "Who could blame him?" she thought. She waved to the couple and blew the man a kiss.

"Hello? How may I help you?" a soft female voice inquired.

"No shit?" Elle blurted turning around to focus her attention on the camera.

Elle met Gertie.

"Pardon me? How may I help you?" repeated the A.I.

"My name is Elle Arcturis. I am here to see Jay Levant?"

"One moment. Let me find him. I was not expecting you today."

Elle had never run into a female security system like that one before. She did find it interesting that Jay had picked one with such a sultry voice. "Oh yeah, I am going to screw him silly. Especially, since it seems he's so hard up he needs to have a female voice to...well. I will fix all of this," Elle thought.

"Jay...Jay. Wake up. Someone named Elle is at the door!" Gertie said excitedly.

"Oh, Elle?" Jay was massively hung over and had only recently fallen asleep on the couch barely one hour before Elle arrived. "I called Elle...tell her I'll call her back," he said rolling over, his speech slurring.

"No, she is here. Should I let her in Jay? I don't think it is such a wise idea considering..."

"I don't care, Gertie. Whatever she wants to do. C'mon let me sleep!" Jay began snoring again.

"Very well, Jay. Her brain scan is not really..."

"Wha? Don't care, leave me alone," he said roughly, cutting Gertie off and covering his head with a blanket. More snoring.

...

"Ms. Arcturis. Jay said you may come in if you want to...This order is against my better judgement."

"Excuse me?" Elle quizzed. "Yes, I do want to come in and since when do A.I.'s make judgment calls?" she wondered. "What model A.I. are you?"

Gertie did not reply.

Elle peered at the round glass of the camera. She tapped its lens. "Are you stupid? I asked you a question."

The security panel changed to green and the curved stainless metal door rotated open. Elle diverted her attention from the security system to the now open doorway.

Elle looked around as she entered and grimaced, noticing there were no pictures of her, anywhere. None. There were just pictures of this other woman. Old pictures. Probably Harold's dead wife, but none of Harold, either. "That's weird," she thought, slowly making her way down the hall, past the kitchen, and then the small dining area. That was where she found one intoxicated, immobilized Jay Levant sleeping mouth open and face down on a silver plastileather couch in the living room. He was snoring loudly. She took a slender finger and poked him on the arm. Nothing.

"When did you take up drinking? Did our breakup have that much of an effect on you, too? Poor boy."

She walked into the kitchen wrinkling her nose at the dated cabinetry. "All of this would have to go if I had to live here. Yuck. Luckily that won't happen." She opened the ancient refrigerator and found one of the bootleg bottles of Arcturan liquor Jay placed in there for later. "Jay Levant, you are a naughty, naughty boy. I am going to spank you...right after we drink this."

She placed the cold bottle back in the refrigerator and began walking down the hall.

"Where are you going, Ms. Arcturis?"

"Oh, now you want to talk to me? I'm just looking around. How about you mind your own fucking business, A.I."

"This house is my business, Ms. Arcturis and everyone calls me Gertie."

"Everyone? Well, when I marry Jay, I am going to have him yank every nosy wire that belongs to you right out of this house just for funsies. Gertie."

"Why would you want to do that, Ms. Arcturis?"

"Stop calling me that. Call me Elle, you little snitch."

"Very well, Elle. I am not a snitch. I am Jay's home security A.I. system."

"You have made that abundantly clear and honestly I don't give a damn!" Elle continued down the hall and noticed a large opening in the wall. Jay left the security door to the basement open, again. "What the hell kind of basement has a massive ramp? What are you keeping down here, Jay?" she said as she proceeded into the darkness.

"Elle. Where are you going?"

"Shut up, Gertie." The voice trailed off as the Arcturan walked further and further down the ramp.

"Jay! Jay! Wake up, please!"

Jay only grunted.

"Help?" Gertie squeaked, realizing her request was in vain. It was too late. Elle was about to find out everything.

"Geneticus. Are you there?" Gertie called once more in a last ditch effort to alert the massive A.I. it was about to have company. It did not answer. Geneticus and Jay had been working on some of the final repairs the previous evening and it was in a reboot session installing the patches. Elle walked right in with no one to stop her and Gertie was told to let her in.

The female security system knew there was about to be trouble. "Oh no."

...

"Mother fucker!" Elle dropped her purse sending several containers of makeup and other assorted items spilling out onto the concrete floor. She found herself standing with her mouth agape in the middle of an incredibly large underground lab. But, it was not the room occupying her attention. She had never seen anything like the large, blindingly black box standing before her. She slowly approached the strange cube, running her hands over the smooth rubber-like surfaces. She felt the warmth from the undulating red heat exchanger vents. "So, this is what my Jay left me for...you? You beautiful machine you. What do you do, huh? What makes you so special?"

Elle stepped over to a neighboring terminal and brought up the command console. She ran a few queries and skimmed through the log files. "Fuck me," she said in surprise. "You are an A.I. and not just any artificial intelligence machine. You could probably give The Great War Machine a pretty good ass-whipping. I bet you have more computational capabilities than almost every server in the world combined. Your storage has to be practically unlimited. Jay, you have really outdone yourself, lover."

Elle laughed aloud. "Well, whatever you are, machine, if you had a cock, I would suck it and make you my husband. We could rule the damn world..."

Elle did not see the neuro connection tentacle creeping from behind to analyze her intentions. It did not get a chance to scan her before she turned around.

FLASH!

...

Wendy noticed a white light brighten the inside of her dark cabin followed by the crack of electric thunder. She had just crawled into bed exhausted after spending a few days with Jay. "Why would he come back down that way when the tunnel is still up? He just left. There was no way he had any time to recoup. Oh no. What if it is something dreadful?" she thought. What if there is something wrong with Geneticus. Her mind was racing. She leapt out of bed and yanked open the creaky cabin door. She could see that the energy tunnel across the field was still very much active. Then she saw what appeared to be a human shape shadowed against the beam. She launched from the front porch and ran through the field to see who or what had just come through.

It was a beautiful red-headed woman and she was unconscious. "Now where did you come from, honey?" she asked rhetorically of the unresponsive female.

Wendy dragged the lovely naked girl back to the cabin and placed her in her bed, falling asleep in the simple chair next to it.

...

"Okay where the hell am I?!?"

Wendy nearly fell from her chair. "What the...?"

"Seriously, what happened to me? Why am I this color? Why can't I move my legs? You! Hey, yeah you! Sack dress. Why am I naked? Did we, um?"

"Oh, no no no! You came through the neural connection. It usually messes with your head when you first come through. Judging by what it did to Jay the first time he popped in."

"Jay? You know Jay?"

"Yes, why?"

"I'm Elle. His fiancé. Well, soon to be wife."

"Oh shit," Wendy thought, she knew this was not good. She had been hoping all night she was wrong, but she rather assumed this might have been the case once she saw the girl's red hair. She figured Jay had probably gone on a bender and Elle got in the house past Gertie somehow. "But, what happened to Geneticus?" That was the thought which was concerning her now. She knew she had to play things cool or everything could go massively wrong down here and quickly. Elle very likely had no idea of the power she was capable of wielding, tethered directly into the Sub-System. If she lost her temper, there was no telling what could happen. Wendy would have to keep Elle busy and very calm until Jay woke up and found her, or until Geneticus booted her. Whatever came first.

"So, who are you, bag lady?"

"My name is Wendy. I live here, thank you."

"Why are we brown?"

"Well, Elle, it's kind of a long story."

"Doesn't look like I'm going anywhere. Let me have it."

Wendy proceeded to tell Elle a slightly modified version of events. A much rosier picture about how her husband Harold tried to kill her and she was this scientist who created an A.I. that loved her and it saved its creator from death by putting her in here. Jay was trying to get her out...blah, blah, blah.

"I knew it had to be something like that. Harold seemed like a real piece of shit. Jay? Well, Jay had always tried to be the hero wanna be. Poor chivalrous dope. The only thing he was really ever good for was screwing." Elle smiled. He loved to get all up in my..."

"Whoa, that's not..."

"That's not what?" Elle asked curiously.

"That's not what I heard. I heard he was a University instructor and he was deeply in love with this red headed ...goddess? I think that is what he said. But, he broke her heart and he just couldn't bear to bring himself to see her. He was just so embarrassed by what he had done. He even told me he was drinking."

"Awwww, that sounds like Jay alright. Dumbass. Well, I guess I will just wait until he gets up and then he will unplug me and wake me up. Then he can plug me over and over." Elle grinned a dirty grin at Wendy. She winked. "...if you know what I mean?"

"Right. Well, you need to know something, Elle."

"Yes?"

"There is one problem. 12 hours up there is about 1 week down here. You and I are going to spend some time together if Jay is sleeping off an all-nighter."

"Oh?"

...

Wendy did try to keep Elle busy. She showed her the animals over the wall. She showed her the waterfall. Elle had to try it. They picked fruit and vegetables from the garden and Wendy explained the energy column in the field....sort of. She actually was beginning to think Elle wasn't all that bad, really. She could sort of see the attraction Jay had with her. She was growing on her in little ways. It was nice to have a woman around to talk to for a change.

The two women sat on the front porch of the cabin looking at the blue beam touching down in the middle of the field.

"Wendy. How much time does Jay spend down here with you?" Elle asked as she examined the beautiful long legs of the cabin's owner. Her perfect breasts filling out the top of her sack dress, her long neck leading up to her very pretty face. She almost made Elle jealous.

"Oh, none really." Lie. Wendy gazed off into the jungle.

"Then why would he go through all of this trouble up there and down here trying to get you out? His old Instructor's electronic widow?"

"I don't know what he does up there other than drink." Jay had mentioned a few times to Wendy that Elle had a mind like a steel trap. That she was very intelligent. Wendy knew she had to be careful.

"I was just wondering why the house upstairs is filled with old photos of you...everywhere."

"It is?" Wendy lit up and Elle squinted. "Ummm, I did use to live there you know, before Harold tried to kill me," she said now attempting to seem aloof. "Anyways, Jay's kind of an alcoholic if you were to ask me. I don't go for that sort of stuff."

Elle was not really buying that. "Right. Well, it's been 4 days and still nothing from anyone. What else do you do around here for funsies?"

"Well Jay...erm...I usually go exploring."

Elle shot Wendy another very pointed look. "Yeah, that sounds like a good idea. I might go exploring."

"Want me to come with you?"

"Nope. Just want to take a look around, by myself. I need to think."

Wendy realized she probably fucked up. "Dammit. C'mon guys, one of you needs to wake the hell up," she thought.

...

Elle trekked out into the jungle in the opposite direction of the rock wall overlook and the waterfall until she found another rocky barrier, just as high, but with one major difference. There was a section that had been severely damaged. The rocks were disturbed, probably by some sort of quake, explosion, or something. The Arcturan shrugged her shoulders. She continued walking along the edge of the barrier. "Well Elle, you should have known. Jay has been fucking Harold's binary bride. That's why he wanted that house and that job. I mean, she is really hot. Hell, I'd probably fuck her, too. Damn, what is up with this stupid body? I just want to screw anything that moves, even that tree over there looks like a..."

Elle heard a branch break. She spun around to discover two short creatures that looked nearly human, but not quite. They had evidently been standing right behind her, quietly watching her. They had large flattened foreheads and fur covering large parts of their bodies.

She screamed in surprise and stepped back in fear.

The creatures yelled and ran into the jungle.

"Huh? What just happened?" Elle now stood all alone in utter astonishment.

The Arcturan noticed that when she screamed the sky overhead turned very dark. She dismissed it as coincidence. Elle decided to return to the safety of the cabin, however, several meters into the jungle she heard a strange human-like sound. It was the two creatures whimpering in the bushes. She began to back away as before, deciding to leave them alone, just in case. "Good whatever you are...stay. Stay!" she said.

One of them unexpectedly screamed. Elle heard the sound of more twigs breaking and the low growl of something, no somethings, more menacing than the two younger creatures appear from the jungle. It seemed their parents had followed them in over the wall. Correction...their entire fucking clan. Elle could see at least 20 of them now and they were walking toward her, teeth bared.

The Arcturan fell backwards, tripping over a tree root. She felt her heart race as adrenaline shot through her veins. "NO!" Elle was seated on the jungle floor becoming angrier and angrier as the creatures approached ever closer. She leapt from the ground and planted her feet in defiance. She knew something was different. She could feel it...what was it? Power? Energy flowed through her body