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Subject: {ASSM} Life With Alpha - Chapter Seventeen: Going Hollywood (MF, MF+, MC, SciFi, anime, cartoon, comic book)
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<1st attachment, "Alpha17.txt" begin>
Life with Alpha
by A. Pseudonym
Chapter Seventeen: Going Hollywood
Codes: MF, FF, MF+, MC, SciFi, anime, cartoon, comic book
Disclaimer: All artificial persons herein are based on characters owned by
their creators, not the author.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Moon_Is_A_Harsh_Mistress
Author's Note: This chapter is the first time I have included vaguely real
people in this tale. I am not so presumptuous as to think I can realistically
write real people as characters in erotic fiction, so I have renamed them
slightly for the story. Disregard any connection between what I write and who
you think the real person is. (At the same time, I AM presumptuous enough to
put a fictionalized real person in erotic situations.) Also be warned that
aside from the renamed actors, most of the Hollywood characters are entirely
fictional with no basis in reality at all.
Author's Note #2: I am not a fast writer and don't have as much free time for
writing as I used to. Although my output is slow, it is coming. Currently I
have plans up through Chapter 21 (and have some sections of each chapter already
written) as well as plans for at least two more chapters of the side story (with
maybe 30% of chapter two finished). The main LwA story will probably finish in
Chapter 21 or 22, but I have plans for two possible series to continue the
story.
* * * * *
Hackers had been a problem for AARD for pretty much the past two years,
ever since Alphadroid debuted. Not a big problem, but there had been at least a
dozen noticeable incidents. No serious breaches of security though.
Alpha herself was almost completely hacker-proof. First of all, she had
been running her own unique OS for years. Well, it might be more accurate to
say that she WAS her own OS, but she could still run almost any application from
other operating systems including her own self-designed support applications
and... let's just say it's complicated. The point is that hackers often try to
exploit the holes in known operating systems and hers was an unknown one.
That alone certainly didn't make her immune. As long as a computer is
part of a network or online, it is vulnerable. The other major part to her
extreme resistance to intrusion is along the same lines as a human's resistance
to surgery while conscious. Any unauthorized or unexpected access feels like
someone poking her with needles, and we haven't yet come up with any method to
apply virtual anesthetic to an AI. (Alpha tells me that is not an accurate
analogy, especially since it's not painful and she does it to herself all the
time, but it's the most easily understandable comparison I could come up with.)
She feels someone poking her and can immediately react to block the intrusion.
You should realize that there are a lot of different styles and approaches
to hacking, and I'm not going to discuss them all. However I will say that what
Hollywood shows on TV and in the movies has as much to do with real hacking as a
child's crayon drawing has to do with constructing a building from scratch.
As for other online threats, she never gets viruses, and trojans and worms
never have a chance against her. Plus she's the best spam filter I've ever
seen.
That having been explained, it's also important to remember that not every
computer at AARD is an Alpha host system. She likes to have about an 8-to-1
ratio of support systems to host systems so that she can offload processing
chores. (I'm not addressing personal, office and lab systems since intruders
have to breach Alpha's network to access them.)
These support systems, even though they are very well protected and run a
unique OS similar to Alpha's own, were significantly more vulnerable than an
Alpha host system, and it was mostly through those systems that all serious
security penetrations had occurred.
Alpha monitors a lot of online hacker chatter, and there were certain
groups where AARD was becoming a favorite challenge. So far no hacker had ever
gained access to any significant data or systems -- the most successful hack had
only gotten a list of project names (read on) -- but apparently they had
succeeded just enough to encourage more and more attempts.
Twice my login and password had been guessed or worked out, but as
effective as that strategy might be with other companies' systems, it was the
least effective strategy possible in our case. Alpha always knows where I am.
Always. If I suddenly try to log in remotely from somewhere else, she
automatically knows it isn't me and kills the connection. (For that matter, I
almost never actually have to log in. Alpha sees me sitting down at a terminal
and logs in for me. Working with Alpha tends to make me pretty lazy in some
respects.) The login/password strategy had been tried with a few other AARD
employees, but it was only slightly more effective.
The most serious attack came from China, or at least we think it
originated in China. The first time we noticed that particular individual or
group was with a denial-of-service attack which we think was designed to test
our reaction. DoS attacks aren't really hacks, but they can be used to see how
fast the target reacts and corrects the problem. In our case, it was almost as
if the DoS didn't happen, because Alpha was able to reassign IPs and reroute
traffic for our affected servers in less than a minute. I honestly don't know
how the instigators reacted beyond their apparent refusal to give up.
Our network was probed regularly for months, but that wasn't really
anything new. Finally one day in August, AARD was hit by a very sophisticated
probe. And NO, I'm not going to tell you what they did. I'm pretty sure that
with any other system, they would have had at least limited system access until
the next in-depth system review. And remember, this was a hack into a unique OS
designed by a super-intelligent AI. Personally I was seriously impressed with
their skill.
Fortunately for us, their access to one of Alpha's support systems was
noticed about 90 seconds after the initial access when the intruders started
trying to copy files. They were greedy or fearful of being booted or something,
because they tried to grab a lot of files all at once, which caused an
unexpected dip in the available resources for one of Alpha's support systems
which drew Alpha's attention. Before Alpha shut down the system, they
successfully copied an old project resources list -- not a project description
list, just a list of project names and the funds allotted to them -- and may
have gotten partial copies of a few other files.
Alpha locked down the firewall, powered off the affected system,
physically removed it from network access and analyzed it via a direct cable.
Finally she removed the vulnerability in all her support systems. It took a
grand total of twenty-five minutes, but I think the scare was worth it just so
that she would not feel so complacently superior.
Eventually even though the threat of being hacked wasn't terribly bad, it
led to discussions and then plans.
Since we also had the longstanding threat of a government entity (the NSA
springs to mind) confiscating Alpha -- a theoretical but serious threat we had
to consider -- we decided to move beyond our current rather limited plans to
rebuild and restore Alpha if something happened. We would decentralize and copy
Alpha much more than our current set of two main copies of Alpha and five mobile
platform copies (plus Epsilon Eiko -- and actually, we had developed a few more
mobile platform copies that I haven't mentioned yet).
That August, we began the process of building more Alpha host platforms
(ie cyborgs), this time with the intention to send them out around the country
in pairs. We would provide them with enough money to buy their own small
businesses, which they would run. These independent businesses would also serve
as hosts for secret, active copies of Alpha.
Now I know how this sounds, like the setup in a computers-are-going-to-
take-over-the-world SciFi story. I certainly can't say that the idea never
crossed my mind. At the same time, I was confident that humanity was in no
danger from Alpha (as long as it didn't come down to a choice between humanity
in general or me in particular).
The problem is that I know that trouble is coming eventually. We can't
keep Alpha's existence a secret forever; for that matter, we don't actually want
to keep her a secret forever. Unfortunately premature discovery under
uncontrolled circumstances is the most likely scenario.
When she's finally discovered, depending on how and why the revelation
comes out, my little world could very well come crashing down. As long as
certain things remain secret, I should be able to stay out jail, but the
increase in scrutiny that will come with the revelation is likely to mess up or
possibly even destroy my household. And that's to say nothing of things like
religious zealots getting upset at the idea of creating artificial life, and how
they might want to take it out on Alpha and myself. (Personally I'm hoping that
extreme religious types will just deny that Alpha is alive and ignore us.)
There were just too many variables, too many things that could go wrong.
Sending out extra copies of Alpha increased the chances of discovery, but it
would also vastly increase the chances of Alpha's survival. And it would give
us a huge advantage if we ever got into an online war.
This was a major shift in our character-building strategy. These would be
mostly male-female couples not based on any fictional characters. Outside of an
initial cash outlay, they would be completely independent of AARD and all ties
between us would be hidden or deleted. They would interact with Alpha Prime
online regularly, but even that would be kept secret, with interaction mainly
limited to using secure third-party sites and would be heavily encrypted.
They'd still receive all of the updates for Alpha's programming and be able to
request updates specifically for their individual platforms.
These copies would still carry all of the same Asimov protocols including
an overriding need to protect me, but in all likelihood the only time we would
ever meet in person would be shortly after they were born. I would probably
never even have... well... okay, I'm a low-down dirty horndog. I would probably
only have sex with the women once before they went out on their own.
Their main purpose in existing was simply to help prevent the possible
extinction of a new form of life, ie Alpha. They would also provide safe
locations to stay should the worst come to pass.
These independent mobile units would use a double Greek alphabet naming
system -- Alpha-Alpha-Male and Alpha-Alpha-Female would support Alpha 3, then
Alpha-Beta-Male and Alpha-Beta-Female would support Alpha 4, and so on. (Alpha
2 is hosted at AARD, and Alpha 1, aka Alpha Prime, is my original home version.)
Since the naming system is mostly for my benefit, this would leave the rest of
the single-letter Greek alphabet names available for my own use.
The first two pairs would be kept local to north Texas, then the pairs
would start spreading out across the country, then across the globe.
There are a lot more details about the plans, such as how they would
constantly check on each other to be alert for programming failures, but I don't
see any need to get into too many specifics right now.
This new expansion was begun in August, and we expected to send out two
new sets of couples every two and a half months or so. We hadn't set a specific
limit as to how many we were going to send out, but we agreed on a minimum of 50
sets. Since each set would have their own nanite pod and the ability to create
new cyborgs, the expansion could theoretically proceed at an exponential rate.
Lovers of SciFi apocalypses, you may begin your worrying now. (I kid, I
kid. Personally I view it as seeding the world with secret protectors of
humanity.)
* * * * *
Our next big investment and venture into the public eye was done as a
gift-slash-reward for Alpha.
One morning after I got to work, Alpha surprised me with a new proposal.
"Frank, I understand that previously you have dismissed or delayed
consideration of this because the cost would be over $100 million, but I have a
new approach to the project which would keep the costs down to the $25 to $40
million range."
"Which project?"
"Making a movie."
Aaahhh. Alpha had for years been upset at the mostly negative portrayal
of artificially intelligent computers and robots in all forms of media.
Movies had such wonderful examples as I, Robot and 2001, Blade Runner and
Star Trek The Motion Picture, Alien and the ultimate example of Terminator. A
few positive portrayals showed up in movies like A.I. and Short Circuit, but the
ratio heavily favored villainous computers.
TV had similar problems, like Battlestar Galactica (both versions) and
Star Trek facing off against mixed-to-positive portrayals like Star Trek The
Next Generation and Small Wonder. TV actually had a lot more positive
portrayals than movies, but it was still just even at best. (And from my
personal perspective, Small Wonder was really creepy in retrospect. Yes, it was
supposed to be an innocent sitcom, but come on... a man creating a little girl
robot to play with? Or maybe it just hit a little too close to home, with
pedophilia inferences added in to mess with me.)
Games were almost relentlessly negative. Evil computers and robots are
easily defined opponents, with recent popular examples including the Mass Effect
and Portal series.
Books were more mixed. The further back you go, the more common it is to
have robots or computers as villains, maybe with Saberhagen's Berserker series
as the ultimate example. (And don't even get me started on the story/game I
Have No Mouth and I Must Scream.)
Alpha's favorite example of a positive portrayal of an intelligent
computer was Robert A. Heinlein's The Moon is a Harsh Mistress. (Spoiler Alerts
if you haven't read the book.) Mike (short for Mycroft) is a computer that
becomes self-aware on the Moon and is befriended by a computer technician,
Manny. I'm really simplifying here, but the Moon rebels against the oppressive
and uncaring Earth authority kind of like the United States rebelled against
Great Britain except that the Moon has much stronger reasons. Mike joins and
leads the revolution but is apparently killed at the end of the book.
There are a few parallels between Alpha and Mike, but I think Alpha just
really liked it because it was one of the few classic, award-winning pieces of
Science Fiction where the computer was a hero. (And the lead male character is
a computer programmer/repairman who is part of a polygamous marriage, so maybe
there are some vague parallels with me too.) For years she's wanted to make it
into a movie, but the cost was always prohibitive, not to mention the problems
with getting anything done right in the weird world of Hollywood.
Alpha patiently explained her proposal to me. She would start by
developing a new product for AARD: an easy-to-use special effects world
generator. Basically it would be a very powerful computer with a huge database
and the ability to generate photo-realistic backgrounds for a large range of
environments and cities from all historical eras. If you want to set a movie or
TV show in Paris of the 1700's or Shanghai of the 1950's, then just punch that
up on the computer. It would contain a basic layout of the city and be able to
populate it with buildings and houses appropriate to that era.
Creating such databases and software would take a lot of work, but it was
the kind of work that Alpha excelled at. (It actually took five of her systems
a full week to get everything together, which was an enormous time investment
for her, plus another couple days working through the software user interface
with me.)
Then we'd load everything into a powerful computer with strong rendering
engines and huge capacity hard drives and sell them for a quarter of a million
dollars each. Or maybe half a million.
The point is that it would be simple for even a layman to create quick,
easy and extremely high quality environmental special effects. Expensive? Yes,
but a one-time investment would allow anyone to create a TV series or movie set
almost anywhere without ongoing extravagant costs.
And one of the available settings could very well be a retro-future city
on the Moon.
So we create the new product, then invest in the filming of a feature
movie -- The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress, of course -- to prove how well it works.
I could see that this wasn't going to be as easy as Alpha was hoping, but
she really wanted to do this. I considered it carefully, finally deciding that
making Alpha happy was worth the effort. Plus if the movie actually became
popular, it might be a positive bit of pro-AI propaganda.
The first thing we did was secure the movie rights. The rights were
already floating around Hollywood along with an actual script, but development
had been next to nonexistent. We paid the slightly extravagant price of $2.2
million for an otherwise dead project so that we could have the rights without
needing to give a percentage to or bow to input from anyone. (And we only had
three years to start filming for that $2.2 million price or the rights would
devolve back to Heinlein's estate.)
Fortunately no major studio was seriously interested in the property or it
would have cost a lot more time and money. As it was, it still took two months
to get the rights secured. (Stupid slow pace of non-computerized people...)
We read over the existing script and threw it out. It was an updated
version of the book whereas we wanted a retro-future version much closer to the
source material.
Alpha generated a script which was a straight adaptation of the book...
and would probably turn into an eight or ten hour movie. Our first big problem
in trimming it down was that an important part of the first act has three people
and a computer talking in a hotel room, plotting the revolution, then describing
some of the minutia of how to foment a rebellion against authority. It was a
fairly important section but a straight translation would create a very dull
first act. I worked with Alpha and we eventually decided on visual
storytelling. Instead of just listening to Professor de la Paz explain why the
moon's population would start starving in a few years, we'd hear his voice
overlay while quick visuals giving an overview of the situation flash across the
screen. When Manny worked out the revolutionary cell structure, we'd see quick
cuts of actual revolutionaries. We worked that huge story section down to a 5
to 15 min scene in the film (give or take a few minutes).
Acts two and three had plenty of great visuals and action pieces, and we
weren't really worried about the special effects budget, so we tried to leave
most of it alone for now. Even then, we still had to make cuts. The whole
subplot about Mannie's polygamous line marriage was dropped, which also
simplified the romantic subplot with Manny and Wyoh. The visit to Earth was cut
in half using a few representative shots and some narration. And so on.
Now before everyone starts objecting, we understood that we weren't
professional screenwriters. Alpha had digested a number of books on the subject
and I was a geeky movie fan, so we had a good starting point, but we knew we
would probably need to submit the script for rewriting and polishing at some
point.
What we needed first was a producer, then director, then actors and crew,
THEN we would be ready for some movie magic. Or so we thought.
* * * * *
November was a full month. We acquired the movie rights. We sent out the
Alpha-Alpha and Alpha-Beta couples to set up shop in Dallas and Arlington.
And at the beginning of November I had a meeting with the mayor of Fort
Worth. We were trying to buy an abandoned property next door to AARD for
eventual expansion, but it was all tied up in red tape and we couldn't seem to
get any forward movement on a possible purchase.
So there I was, all dressed up in suit and tie -- I hate wearing ties --
with Diana and Kara at my side, ready to ask the mayor for a favor.
The mayor was, surprise surprise, a middle-aged white guy who smiled a lot
and seemed like a pleasant enough fellow. As a rule I hate politics and don't
trust politicians, but it's a graduated distrust. The higher the post achieved,
the less I trust. The way the system works, it's virtually impossible for an
honest citizen to be elected to high office. Being mayor of a large city wasn't
nearly as bad as it could it get, so I tried to approach the meeting with an
open mind.
We exchanged introductions and pleasantries, and I was impressed that he
was able to keep his eyes off my ladies' assets for the most part. He expressed
gratitude at how I was helping the economy and encouraged me to create more
local jobs. He also asked if I knew when our hair growth formula would be
approved for use. (Yes, his hair was definitely thinning a bit. The answer was
that it would be a year at the earliest and at least initially would require a
doctor to apply the treatment.)
Finally we got down to business.
"So Frank, what can the city of Fort Worth do for you today?"
"Well, Mr Mayor, next door to AARD is an old automotive repair shop with a
small attached shopping strip. Maybe three acres worth of land in the plot.
It's all abandoned and condemned, and the owner is gone. No taxes paid on it
for years, that sort of thing. And I'd really like to buy it so we can expand
someday. Unfortunately it's all tied up in red tape. We've been trying to buy
it for over a year now and have made very little progress. So..."
"So you want to see if I can start the process moving again? I'd have to
look into the specifics, but I can probably help out. First I was wondering if
you'd be willing to help me out with a little quid pro quo."
Here it comes, I thought, my mood swiftly darkening. This is how the
political system really works. It's just sickening how casual and...
"The city's Parade of Lights has... well, we just aren't getting enough
sponsors or participation this year."
I think I got a bit of mental whiplash from my train of thought stopping
so abruptly.
"The... parade...?" was all I managed to say in response.
"Yes. We have a lot of schools who'd love to march their bands for us,
but with our education budgets the way they are, we need outside sponsors and we
just aren't getting enough of them. If AARD could help sponsor one, or even put
out a float of your own, that would be a very nice gesture for the city. Or I'm
sure everyone would love to see your android, so even if you'd just put him in a
convertible..."
"You want... Sorry, yes, I think we can..." I thought furiously. Looking
back, I probably wouldn't have suggested what I did if I hadn't been a bit off
balance.
"All right, Mr Mayor. Pick out a school and send us the information, and
we'll be more than happy to sponsor it. As to a float... hmmm... no, not a
float. How about this: How would you like to have your parade this year show
up in newscasts all over the world? In a good way, I mean."
"What do you have in mind?"
"I want to keep it a secret for now. But I'll need a vehicle inspector to
come by and give us a permit before the show."
"Well every float has to be inspected for safety reasons..."
"This isn't a float. Let's call it a... uhhh... a new type of car. Yeah,
for now let's go with that. An experimental car. It was a challenge project
for one of my teams, and it turned out really well. As far as we're concerned,
it's completely street safe, but it's unique so we're going to need a permit to
put it in the parade. It's not really Christmas-themed, but I suppose we could
give it a holiday paint job."
"So how can a new car get us noticed worldwide?"
"Secret, remember."
He chuckled. "All right. I'll have my secretary send you information on
a couple possible schools. And send out an inspector. Is your surprise ready
right now or is it still being built?"
"It was just finished last week. As I said, we'll give it a holiday paint
job... maybe make it look like Santa Claus or something, but functionally it's
completely ready to go."
"All right then, I'll see if I can find someone to send out next week.
Thank you."
"Thank you, Mr Mayor." I gestured to Kara, who put a large envelope on
the Mayor's desk. "And here's the information about the property we want to
buy."
"I'll see what I can do." And he handed me a form to sign-up for the
parade in return.
He was certainly as good as his word. Paperwork started flowing again
fairly quickly, the local courts cleared the path for us in January and we
bought the property in February.
As to the vehicle inspector, well he came by the following Wednesday...
riding in a limo with the mayor. The mayor explained that he was very curious
and had a little free time, so he decided to tag along for the inspection.
I kept a smile on my face and ushered them into our warehouse. I was
already starting to regret my offer, but I wasn't going to go back on a promise.
I just hated the publicity it would bring.
"Before I show you what's behind the curtain," I gestured to a large
section of the warehouse which was separated from everything else with large
tarps hanging down from the 25 ft ceiling, "I need to ask that you put your cell
phones in here." I held out a small plastic tub. "I really want to keep this
under wraps for now, and the urge to take pictures will be strong."
Surprisingly the mayor was game, only asking that someone tell him if his
phone rang. The inspector warned that he was probably going to have to take
pictures as part of his inspection.
"That's fine as long as they don't end up on the internet in the next
month or two."
Maybe I was building up the reveal too much?
I took them behind the curtain and revealed... what looked like a cross
between a Jeep and a short-bed truck. I could sense their disappointment, but
didn't give them time to express it.
"Beta," I called out to the statuesque brunette standing next to the car.
"If you please?"
She slid behind the drivers seat, and we heard a very quiet engine start
up. Then the hood opened, but opened up as if hinged in the front. The cab
started shifting upwards and the rear wheels started moving forward while the
front wheels stayed in place. Pieces seemed to break off from the undercarriage
and back while the front end split in two. In the cab, Beta continued to rise
up until she was about twelve feet off the ground.
After about 45 seconds, the transformation was complete. Before us stood
an 18ft tall robot, a... hmmm... what to call it... should be a catchy name...
how about we call it a 'Transformer'?
This particular Transformer didn't match any specific cartoon or movie
bot, but it had the same basic idea of cars that turn into robots. The
transformation was definitely along the lines of the cartoon robots in disguise.
Alpha had explained that while she might be able to make something that looked
like one of the movie-style Transformers, it would require tens of thousands of
moving parts and thus need huge amounts of upkeep as things broke down. The
structural strength would also be horrible, so we went with the simpler cartoon-
style.
Other people have built their own life-size Transformers before, but they
were rather limited in their capabilities. This was actually an intelligent
robot (ie Alpha host platform) capable of transforming in less than a minute.
The car could reach speeds up to 150 mph, though the robot could at best only
run about 20 mph. And although it was certainly stronger than any of the
Alphadroids, it didn't have the power you'd expect from a giant robot.
Then the 18ft tall robot started walking -- forwards, backwards and in a
circle. The arms picked up crates we had brought out for the demonstration and
stacked them up. It waved at us. It flashed out a quick little laser light
show from the face, only partly visible in the lit warehouse, and followed that
by shooting steam from weapon-like pipes along its forearms. No juggling
though.
I looked over at our two visitors, who stood staring open-mouthed.
"Well, what do you think?" I asked them, breaking the spell.
"I think we're going to have the most popular parade in years," the Mayor
said quietly. "The kids are going to go nuts over it."
"Since it's a holiday parade, I was thinking we could paint up the robot
form to look like Santa Claus."
"That sounds good. How... how did you make it? I mean where does the
engine even fit, and..."
We were interrupted by Blossom, who poked her head inside and called out,
"Mr Mayor, your phone is ringing."
"Thank you. Please answer it and tell them I'll be right there. Is this
going to be a new product? Are you going to start selling these things?"
"No, this was just a challenge project I put to one of my engineering
teams. A gasoline version of the miniature motors they came up with has been
licensed for sale, and some of the modular designs and programming are going to
show up elsewhere... but no, I don't have any plans to put giant robots in the
hands of drivers."
"I suppose... I suppose that's good. I need to go get my phone... ummm...
Michael, a moment please."
He gestured to the inspector and they walked off together. Alpha later
relayed what he whispered. "Michael, I WANT that thing in the parade. Unless
it's going to hurt someone, I want you to pass it." To which Michael replied,
"Yes, sir, Mr Mayor."
We really didn't have too many worries about it not passing inspection.
True, we couldn't put it through crash tests, but then we also weren't planning
to manufacture and sell it. (For that matter, this lowly state inspector
couldn't do such an inspection anyway.)
His main concerns were about possible damage to the road in robot form (it
had thick rubber soles and wasn't nearly as heavy as it looked), emissions (it
was electric) and its stability in robot form. I had Beta demonstrate how it
could bend over at the waist, stand on one leg and hold a weight off to the side
and not be in danger of falling over. Stability was one of the big challenges
to creating Alphadroid; this was just applying the same setup on a different
scale.
He categorized it as an experimental car, we paid a fee and he mailed us a
license plate.
The mayor kept the secret for us, but he also started a bigger than normal
advertising campaign for the parade.
In the interests of full disclosure for this story, I should point out
that this was only the first 'Alphacar' we built. (I was tempted to call them
KITTs but decided against it.) The others were kept secret. We would register
a vehicle through a small front company in nearby Oklahoma, which had done away
with annual car inspections. Then we would take it apart and rebuild it as an
Alphacar. Some were transformers, most were not. One was even an awful lot
like the Mach 5. Over the course of a couple years, most of our vehicles were
turned into high-tech toys, full of hidden functions and special abilities.
They all became Alpha host platforms and all could drive themselves.
Why did I have so many cars? Mainly because we had over a dozen people
living in one house. Once we started creating Alphacars, I bought more because
I kept coming up with ideas for new car gadgets.
Don't make assumptions about these. They weren't designed for combat. We
weren't loading these down with weapons. Well... okay, a couple got high
intensity lasers, and two could shoot silenced hidden rifles. However eighty
percent had no offensive weapon beyond just being a car. They were a
combination of experiments, just plain having fun, and creating potential
defensive surprises. And a few of my cars were left as just plain cars.
And just because I'm sure someone will be wondering, no I did not have sex
with any of the robot cars. Inside them with someone else? Sure. With them,
no, don't be silly.
* * * * *
Before the parade, I took my first trip to Hollywood. Now you should
understand that I didn't go expecting it to work out well. I may be a geeky fan
of some genre movies and TV shows, but my overall impression of Hollywood is
fairly negative.
(Maybe if they'd stop canceling good shows and instead get rid of all the
crappy reality shows I'd have a better opinion of the culture. And then there's
the ridiculously over-the-top liberal politics out there. Okay, so I'm pretty
liberal in some ways, but I'm also pretty darn conservative in other ways. For
that matter, I'm kinda libertarian in others. I guess I refuse to be limited to
any party's doctrines.)
Back to the subject at hand, Alpha and I needed a producer of some sort
who could help us navigate the Hollywood culture and find the people we needed
to make the movie happen. As I understand it, that's what producers do, right?
They help get together the people that actually make the movie.
Alpha believed that she and her platforms could handle most of the jobs
when it came to making movies, including directing, but she lacked a certain
artistic sense that I felt would hinder the movie's success. So we agreed that
if we could find the right people, we'd try the Hollywood route first before
going entirely independent. Alpha came up with a list of about 20 different
people for me to meet with and informally interview.
About a week and a half before Thanksgiving, Rei, Beta and I took the
company plane to L.A. -- Beta had finally been licensed to be able to serve as
co-pilot -- and began our search.
I kept this group small for one main reason: Guilt.
That past summer, after the Powerpuffs had been added to the household, I
finally admitted that the house was getting too full and that I was trying to
juggle too many women. I decided that out of all of my women, Rei should be the
first to be recycled.
Rei had never fit in smoothly, socially speaking. She was very quiet and
rarely interacted with the others beyond what was necessary. Plus removing her
would be easy to do 'story-wise'. She knew she was a clone who would be called
back to Japan at some point to act as a pilot for experimental craft, so all we
had to do was 'call her back' to Japan.
The night before we were going to instigate the plan, I had Alpha turn Rei
off and visited her room to say goodbye. (Not sexually speaking. Goodbye sex
was planned for the following night.)
Her room was exceptionally messy, which seemed odd given her fastidious
appearance, but there was one area which seemed to be kept clean. One side of
her desk had an almost shrine-like feel to it.
A couple dozen little nick-knacks were carefully placed in a semi-circle
around a scrapbook. There was a small stuffed bear that she won when we went to
the state fair. A character figure from the one time I was able to convince her
to play a pen-and-paper RPG. A pressed and vacuum-sealed rose from one of our
dates. A die-cast airplane copy of her favorite fighter jet from our trip to an
airshow. And more. There were other items for which I could recognize no
significance such as a hair clip, a polished piece of amber and a fist-size wire
statue of a reclining human figure. The scrapbook was full of photos, drawings,
ticket stubs, fortune cookie fortunes and other ephemera. And just above all of
this on the wall were Jane's framed nude drawing of Rei and myself and a group
photo of the household from a year ago.
These were Rei's memories, carefully preserved and displayed. In keeping
with her character's background, she had few memories of her own before coming
here, so she gave special honor to these memories which she could claim as her
own.
For some reason I had no doubt that in case of a fire, these little
mementos would be collected before fleeing to safety.
Handling them one-by-one, I started crying a little. I should have known
before coming here that this would happen.
I came to a realization, taking a final mental step to a conclusion I had
subconsciously known was at hand. I couldn't get rid of Rei. She was too much
of a real person for me to be willing to recycle her... to kill her. And if I
couldn't do that to Rei, the least integrated of any of my artificial women, how
could I do it to anyone else?
When I started this whole thing... this lifestyle... I was planning to
keep each character for a few years at most, then replace them with new
characters as time passed. The trouble is that they didn't stay simple,
fictional characters. They grew and developed, and I had cheered them on with
each new step. I had watched as they became human and gloried in the
accomplishment. Now it was five and a half years since Kasumi woke up, and they
were too real for me to be willing to get rid of them.
So what should I do? Keep my current household forever? Continue adding
new women and just expand the house itself and hope I can still manage it all?
Start sending them out into the world on their own? Ask Alpha to make the
decision for me?
I wish I knew what the right answer was.
One huge complication was another realization I had come to not long
before: I was mildly addicted to creating new women. Seriously, the thrill of
first interactions, plotting out the story needed to bring everything together,
knowing all of a stranger's secrets and using that knowledge to lure her to my
bed... it was just so exciting. (I'm certain there are some god-complex
sociopathic tendencies in there, and that seriously worries me.)
At the same time, the introduction and manipulation are only small parts
of what I love about it all. I tend to only create characters that I really
like and that I think will be able to fit in within my little world. I suppose
in a way I'm creating women that I expect to fall in love with. And despite my
controlling tendencies, they also have to be intelligent women who can act
completely on their own. As long as they are loyal to me, I encourage them to
do whatever they want to do.
The day I think of them as toys or mere possessions is the day I hope I
die. And I suppose that's the reason why my character creation recycling plans
were doomed to self-defeat.
If some of that seems self-contradictory, then either I'm not explaining
it correctly or... well, I guess I'm just human.
At the same time, overcrowding wasn't something I had to worry about right
away. I had slowed down the introduction of my characters to just one set a
year at most, and I still had three empty bedrooms containing five beds.
Still, as a small measure of space management, in January Elisa and
Jasmine moved into a small house of their own about half a mile away, freeing up
one additional room. They still ended up spending up to a third of their free
time at our house.
What was I talking about that lead to all this? Oh yeah, Guilt. I had
come very close to getting rid of Rei not long before the trip, so I made sure
she was going to be my main bed partner for this trip.
Of course Alpha wouldn't let me go alone and was still very unhappy that I
only let Beta accompany me. I had agreed to wear protective clothing, stay
online at all times and take Beta with me wherever I went, which was just barely
enough to keep Alpha from sending along more bodyguards.
As it turns out, none of the producers I met with were remotely
acceptable. Maybe half were actually familiar with the book or script, though
the rest had all read a summary of the book before the meeting.
Everyone wanted to change things around and believed their own opinions
were the best possible thing that could happen to the script. Their suggestions
were along the lines of: "It sounds like a great story, we just need to bring
it up to date with some Mission Impossible-style action." or "I see it as Dune
meets 2001." or "We should get Mel Gibson to make a SciFi update to his
character from the Patriot..." or "How about if we insert some of your robots as
guards to create some more action scenes, since it's supposed to be a prison on
the moon?" or "What if Mike was actually programmed by aliens, and the moon
people discover the alien technology which is how they win their fight with
Earth?"
More than once I could barely restrain myself from giving hostile replies.
The fat sixty-year-old man with a toupee and fake tan who suggested that we
bring aliens into the story was especially hard to endure. On the flip side I
have to admit the guy who described how terrifying space spiders should be added
to the story resulted in restrained laughter rather than anger. One producer
even suggested we nix the computer character since audiences wouldn't be able to
relate to him.
I did my best to smile and thank them all for their time and input.
Only one meeting led to a productive result, and I'll get to that in a
minute.
Most days I had lunch and dinner meetings scheduled -- for some reason,
movie people like to meet at mealtime, maybe so they could stick me with the
check? -- but I made sure to take Rei and Beta out for a nice late dinner some
evenings, even if I wasn't hungry.
Rei was her normal, quiet self, but she certainly enjoyed all the
attention I was giving her. We slept together for five of the seven nights we
were in LA, and by the end of the week, she was regularly curling up next to me
while sleeping, getting me to cuddle her like she was an oversized teddy bear.
Well, an X-rated teddy bear since she preferred to go to sleep with my cock held
inside her pussy or tucked up inside the crack of her buttocks.
Since she wasn't attending the meetings, Rei had some free time and spent
a lot of it going shopping. For some of her shopping, she was picking up
requested items from the rest of the household. For instance, Zatanna had heard
about a piece of Houdini memorabilia at an antique store and asked Rei to check
it out. Linda wanted a designer purse from Rodeo Drive.
Most relevant to the story, Jane wanted Rei to pick out a couple
interesting things from a Los Angeles sex shop, Rei's choice, and she gave Rei
permission to try them out.
The third night of our visit Rei had dinner alone, and I returned to the
hotel after a dinner meeting at which I was assured that the best thing we could
do with the movie was to get a certain professional wrestler to star as Manny.
At that point I was getting depressed and was looking forward to spending a
night with Rei and maybe Beta.
Rei was waiting for me in my room dressed in a shiny black PVC catsuit,
except that the catsuit had a lot more zippers in interesting places than other
catsuits I had seen.
"Well, that's... exciting," I said with a smile. "You bought it for
Jane?" I asked. Rei and Jane were about the same size and body type, and they
had shared clothes in the past. Plus it was difficult to imagine anyone else in
the household requesting such an item.
"Yes. She also suggested I try 'role play'." And so saying, she pulled
out the last piece of the outfit: A PVC... hat isn't the right word, and mask
is too small a description. I suppose hood is the best description. This was a
vinyl hood which covered her entire head, with cat ears, a zippered mouth, holes
for her nostrils and zippered eye slits, currently open. She put it on,
carefully zippering it up the back of her head, pausing twice to adjust the
various holes for accurate placement and to avoid catching her hair.
Once completely dressed in the shiny leather-looking black vinyl, she went
down on all fours, revealing that she also had a tail coming out of her rear.
I started to comment that I really didn't think this was what Jane meant
when she suggested role play, but stopped. With Rei's quiet nature, almost any
other type of role playing would be problematic.
"So you're going to be my pretty kitty-cat tonight?" I asked.
She nodded at me and started awkwardly slinking towards me. I'd guess
that moving and crawling sexily in a full-body catsuit is difficult if you've
never done it before. Still, it was a very arousing sight. The suit was too
tight to show any swinging breasts, but the shiny black mounds seemed to draw my
eyes. So did her legs and ass. The swish of the tail was almost hypnotic as
she circled me.
"I'm not really interested in bestiality," I commented, "but if all cats
looked like you, I might be willing to change my mind."
She blinked at me, then, obviously trying to emulate a cat's behavior,
rubbed her cheek against my leg.
I knelt down in front of her. "Before we go too far, come here for a
minute."
I took her face in my hands and gave her a long, deep kiss. She may want
to try playing a submissive role, but I wanted to be sure we started by letting
her know what she meant to me. When we finally broke the kiss, I shifted up
slightly and kissed the top of her smooth, shiny black head.
"All right, Miss Kitty, let me take a look at you."
Feeling a vinyl-encased body for the first time was an odd experience.
You may think you know what PVC/vinyl/whatever-it's-called is like, but until
you have a loved one covered head-to-toe in the material, you haven't really
experienced the fetish. The smell is strong, especially with a new suit once
the wearer starts sweating.
I explored her body a piece at a time as she continued to rub up against
me. I released her pretty little B-cup breasts by unzipping two removable
circular pieces on her chest. I thumbed her nipples until they were hard, then
moved on down her torso.
It turns out her tail was connected to a plug anchored in her anus. I
played with it for a few minutes without removing it, enjoying how little
applications of pressure or twists would cause her entire body to move in
response.
Finally, I undid the zipper covering her pussy, which went from a few
inches above her vagina all the way back to the anal plug. I rolled her over
onto her back and applied my tongue to her clit for a couple minutes.
Remembering her role as a cat, I sat up and looked for something to tease
her with. On a bed was a riding crop, presumably another new purchase. I
grabbed it and dangled it above the Japanese leather-ish kitty cat before me.
She pawed at it halfheartedly, then looked at me and meowed plaintively.
"Aw, I'm sorry. Is my little kitty in heat?"
She nodded and said "Meow."
"Well, you know what cats in heat do, right? They have to present before
they get fucked."
She rolled over, lowered her front end to her elbows and raised her ass up
as high as she could.
I pulled off my pants and underwear and knelt behind her. Then I
discovered the problem with full-body catsuit fucking, or rather with zippered
catsuit fucking. Rei had a small strip of PVC layered between the zipper teeth
and her skin, so she was protected from pinching and scraping. From outside the
suit, there was no such protection. If you try to fuck as normal, your dick
gets all scraped up on at least one side by the zipper teeth. The only way to
avoid it is to constantly hold it open and apart with both hands, meaning that
you can't use your hands to hold her hips or play with her breasts or anything.
Oddly enough, her tail didn't get in the way at all, since I could easily
turn it so that it curved up along her spine, away from me.
After a couple minutes, I paused and rearranged her position so that she
was resting her upper body and shoulders on a pillow, allowing her hands to hold
the zipper apart for me. Then I was finally able to give her a proper fuck.
We stayed in that position for at least fifteen minutes before I came, and
I'm pretty sure she came at least three times.
When we finished, I rolled her onto her back to kiss her, and noticed she
seemed a bit warm. I felt her exposed skin (i.e. her breasts) and found them to
be hot and covered with sweat.
"Let's get you out of this and let you cool off," I said as I started
searching for which zippers would release her. "How long have you been wearing
it?"
"Maybe Two hours?" she replied in a questioning tone.
Rei wasn't really overheating or in danger, but nearly all of her skin had
been covered by material that didn't allow evaporation of sweat or easy
dissipation of body heat. She was sweating profusely when we got her out of the
suit and popped out her ass-plug/tail. (In stripping her down, I discovered a
little pair of buttons by the crotch designed to hold it open. Live and learn.)
I carried her into the bathroom where I ran a lukewarm bath for her.
Once she was feeling better, I joined her in the tub and arranged myself
behind her so that she leaned back into me. It was an enjoyably intimate and
erotic experience. I had full access to her from behind, massaging her breasts,
rubbing her stomach and playing with her clitoris. When she felt my cock poking
her from behind, she reached back and gave me a bit of a handjob.
After a minute of this, she pushed herself up and moved back a little,
slipping her pussy down onto my hard-on. We didn't really fuck then, we just
sat and enjoyed the sensations. While I cupped her breasts and played with her
nipples, I told her about my day.
"...so I was really happy when the dinner was over. You, my dear, have
been the best part of my day so far."
Rei may not be a good conversationalist, but she is an excellent listener.
Eventually the time came to exit the tub and go to bed. Obviously tonight
was a Rei-only night, and I was rarrin' to go again. Rei put the cat hood back
on and plugged her ass with the tail again, but left the rest of the suit off.
This time she was much more energetic and flexible, and while I know a lot of
people have vinyl fetishes, I'm perfectly happy with bare skin. We tried a few
different positions and finished with me pounding her ass like a piledriver with
her shoulders on the ground and her back propped against the side of the bed.
On day five of the visit, Beta and I went by the offices of one Bernard
Blanchard, an older gentleman who had been in the business since the late
fifties.
We arrived a few minutes early and spent half an hour talking with his
assistant, Jennifer Tuesday, until he was finally ready to see us. Jennifer was
a lovely young lady, maybe in her mid-20's, with dark hair and glasses. Unlike
most women I had met in town so far, Jennifer did not have a hard-body. She was
by no means fat, but she was curved and looked invitingly soft. And best of
all, she had more than two brain cells and had read some of Heinlein's books for
pleasure.
The meeting with Mr Blanchard was basically a waste of time -- his big
suggestion was to change the setting to Mars -- but after we left, Beta talked
to me about Miss Tuesday.
"We might consider hiring her instead."
"As our producer?"
"Yes."
"She's pretty young... and would she even have the contacts we need?"
"As far as I can tell, her primary job for the past few years has been to
maintain Mr Blanchard's contacts for him."
"How can you tell that?"
"Her webpages. She claims that her boss never goes online but instead
leaves all computer work to her. I can see nothing online to contradict her
claim. And the only computer in Mr Blanchard's office was an older model,
covered with dust."
"I see. Well, let's continue on with our meetings today and tomorrow. If
nothing comes of it, we'll give her a call and feel her out."
"You wish to bed her?"
"That's not what I meant by 'feel her out'... but possibly. No, it's not
a factor to be considered." Meaning it wasn't a factor for Alpha to include in
her calculations, not that she wasn't attractive.
A day and a half later, I called Miss Tuesday.
"Mr Blanchard's office, how may I help you?"
"Hello, Jennifer?"
"Yes, how may I help you?" she repeated, trying not to sound bored.
"This is Frank. I met you yesterday morning. I was wondering if I could
talk with you tonight."
"Mr Blanchard is unavailable for the rest of the day. If you'd like I
could schedule..."
"No, no. Sorry if I wasn't clear. I would like to talk to you, Jennifer,
about a possible job."
"A job? I mean, sure. Or at least, we can talk about whatever you'd
like."
"How about dinner tonight? I can get us a table at Lite's." Pronounced
Lee-tay. It was a local ridiculously pretentious restaurant, but the food
actually was really good.
"I would love to go there, but you're new in town, right? It can take
months to get a reservation."
"I was there two nights ago and the manager said to call him for a table
any time while I was in town."
That was entirely true. I generally like to believe that ever since I
turned Alpha on, we've made our own luck, but sometimes bits of serendipity just
fall into your lap.
My potential producer for that other evening's meeting had made the
initial reservation at Lite's. During dinner Beta's reflexes and calm demeanor
had really impressed the manager when a bobbled flambe dessert had briefly set
our tablecloth on fire, and she had quickly put it out using a water refill jug
snatched from a waitress. It was a moment almost worthy of a 'funniest videos'
entry had it been recorded. (Personally, I think the dessert waiter was looking
down the front of Beta's dress at the time.) The manager had comped the dinner
bill to make it up to us, but I had left a large tip anyway.
"Wow. I mean, yes, I'd be happy to meet you for dinner."
"It'll need to be a little late, I'm afraid. Let's try for 8:30. I'll
call back if anything changes."
"Sure. Oh wait, here's my private line." She rattled off the number, and
I lazily ignored it, knowing Alpha, who listened in on all of my calls unless I
specifically told her not to, would add it to my address book automatically.
The reservation was made without a hitch, and we met for dinner.
Jennifer had dressed up in a de rigueur little black dress with two-inch
pumps. The rectangular cut in front showed off her breasts to nice effect, but
I was able to keep my eyes on her face. Mostly. By the end of the evening I
had decided they were either D-cups or pushed-up C-cups... so maybe I glanced a
few times.
I held the chairs for both Beta and Jennifer in turn as they sat down,
realizing that maybe one of the reasons men liked to do this for women was the
opportunity it allowed to take a peek down the woman's decolletage.
"Thank you for inviting me out to dinner, Mr. ___..."
"Please call me Frank."
"Certainly." She was clearly a bit nervous and wondering if she should
bring up the job offer or wait for me to do so.
I didn't wait to let her decide. "As you know, I'm going to be making The
Moon Is a Harsh Mistress into a movie. Unlike a lot of projects around here,
that isn't a question or subject to funding or approval from someone else. I
have the rights, I'm funding it myself, and I'll be using a new system for the
digital effects.
"I suppose it's going to be considered an indie film, but we should be
able to make it look like a big studio film to a certain extent. On the other
hand, I'm not looking to make a mindless summer blockbuster.
"Indie or not, I think it will be a lot easier to make the film and we'll
get a much better finished product if I can get some experienced people to work
on it. Unfortunately, so far my meetings with people around town have been...
disappointing."
She barely suppressed a laugh, turning it into a cough.
"Everyone I've talked to wants to add their own personal touches, and
while I realize we're not making a completely authentic adaptation of the book,
none of the input I've gotten has shown any understanding of the work. Not
meaning to speak ill of your boss behind his back, but he wanted to change the
setting to Mars, which makes no sense on a number of levels."
"Mr Blanchard has produced some very successful movies, but he's not well
known for faithful adaptations."
"Indeed. Jennifer, I'm curious. What suggestions would you have for the
movie?"
"Me? I'm not a... I mean, I actually really enjoyed the book as it was.
The only problem is that it covers too much for a movie to handle, which is
normal for adaptations. If I remember right, there are lots of bits and pieces
about everything from creating subversive literature before the rebellion to
discussions of different types of marriage on the Moon. A lot of that would
have to be cut out for a movie script."
"True. Go on..."
"Ummm... I suppose there would have to be a big focus on the fighting at
the end of the book for most of your action elements, but I guess that depends
on whether you want to make a political movie or an action Sci-Fi movie. There
have been other movies that handle both elements successfully -- I'm thinking of
Avatar here -- but those are pretty rare."
We broke off our conversation here to order drinks and glance at the
menus.
"I disagree about Avatar having anything politically significant to say,
and regardless I'm not looking to hire James Cameron," I continued a moment
later. "For one thing I'm not planning on a half billion dollar budget. Who
would you suggest for director?"
"I'm not sure. You seem to be in a rush about this, so scheduling would
be a big factor in that case. Del Toro has some geeky fanaticism about him so
he might work well with what you want, but he has so many projects right now
it's not even funny. I guess Spielberg would be the ideal candidate, but the
odds of convincing him to do it are nil. Abrams might be good, but he'll insist
on rewriting the script."
I was almost 100% certain she couldn't connect me with the big names she
was throwing around, but I let her keep going.
"Come to think of it, most big directors will bring in their own writers.
If you want to maintain creative control, you'll have to find a fresh director,
someone with good skills but who hasn't done any big projects yet. Or maybe an
actor who wants a chance to direct. Actually that might be your best bet. It's
a bit of a risk, but some actors are willing to relinquish some creative control
for a chance in the director's chair."
"Good point. Any suggestions?"
"Probably not A-listers. They'd want to show off their own creative
visions. I'd really like a chance to research it a little before answering.
You kinda caught me off guard here."
"A reasonable request. Jennifer, here's my situation. As it stands right
now, I have a few indirect connections to some television writers and a handful
of technical people. To make this process go smoother, I need someone with
connections to a lot more than that. Someone who knows who to suggest, who to
contact and how to contact them."
She sat up straighter at this.
"I've seen your webpage and did a little research. I'm guessing Mr.
Blanchard rarely or never goes online or he probably would have been rather
upset at a few things you wrote about him, Insider Girl."
She froze up. "I don't know what you're talking about."
"If you want to really stay anonymous, you need to spoof your IPs.
'Insider Girl' posts her blogs from both Mr Blanchard's office and from
somewhere in your apartment building. That really limits the number of suspects
doesn't it?"
Insider Girl was a minor blogger in Tinseltown. She regularly posted
insider gossip about the Hollywood elite and behind-closed-doors movie
production deals. She never posted things that could hurt a production, which
was something I liked about her, and that lack of exploitative salaciousness was
also the reason she was only a minor blogger. On the other hand, she rarely had
good things to say about her boss 'who was so out of touch that brain death
might make his creative input better'.
Before we had even finished our meeting with Jennifer's boss, Alpha had
sorted through her posts and come to the conclusion that she must have very good
access and contacts around the industry. It all matched up with what we knew of
Miss Tuesday.
"What do you want?" She suddenly looked like her world was crashing down
around her ears.
"Don't worry. I haven't told anyone and won't. Your secret identity is
safe regardless, not that I've seen many negative entries on your site, so I
doubt it would be a big deal either way. What I want is someone who has the
connections that I need. I want a producer with a brain larger than a walnut.
So far, you're the best candidate I've come across, which is a sad commentary on
this town since you're not actually a producer." I let the back-handed
compliment sit for a few seconds before adding, "Yet."
"You want ME to produce your movie?"
"Possibly. But I'm not going to hire you until I'm certain you can
actually do the job. And I need to know if you have a non-compete clause in
your contract with Mr. Blanchard."
"I don't think so... about that contract thing, that is. For that matter,
I don't think I ever signed an official contract. Mr. Blanchard doesn't
really... I mean, he does contracts for movie work, but his hiring me was along
the lines of him asking if I can type and work his, and I'm quoting, 'electronic
computer things'. I said yes, and he hired me. I think part of it is that he
wanted an eye-candy assistant, but he's too old to do anything more than play a
little grab-ass. He pays me with hand-written checks, and I think he's had
trouble from the IRS because he doesn't always remember to take out Social
Security and such."
"For our purposes, that sounds good. The next question is do you think
you can do the job? And do you want to try?"
"Absolutely. I don't have any resume I can give you to prove it, but if
financing is already handled then I know everyone else around town that you
could need..."
I held up a hand to stop her for a moment. "I wouldn't have invited you
here tonight if I didn't think you had the potential. Here is what I propose:
I'm heading back to Texas tomorrow and won't be back in California for two
weeks. When I get back, I'd like to meet with you again and hear a proposal
from you on the best options I have for a director, writer, casting director,
and so on. I'm not asking you to fill out every berth, just give me a
reasonable list of options for the most essential ones. If you want to create a
wish list of actors, go ahead, but that's not my first step here.
"I expect to be able to talk with your top suggestions about the movie
during my next visit or at least have contact information available for them. I
don't expect you to have any agreements made or even necessarily to have
discussed any specifics with any of them, though you can if you want. I do
expect you to at least be able to get a foot in the door so to speak.
"I realize this might cause a conflict of interest with your current
employer. Work on your own time for now, and if I hire you, then you can resign
or take a leave of absence or whatever you work out with Mr. Blanchard. I also
realize your time is not free and that you might even be risking your current
job by doing this preliminary work."
I pulled a check out of my breast pocket along with my business card.
"Here is a check for $10,000 dated for December 15th. As long as you make
a good effort to fulfill my requests, the money is yours. However as soon as
you cash the check, you have an official, on-the-record conflict of interest
with your current job. As I see it, until December 15, you're preparing for a
job interview. If your work is good, the $10K is payment for that work. If I
hire you, the salary would be a minimum of a quarter million.
"Check me out if you want. I am for real, and I am generous to employees.
And I don't like the spotlight. I don't see myself doing interviews regarding
the movie, so a photogenic producer would be a bonus."
"One thing, sir. Two things, actually. From what I can tell, you're
already going to be the producer here. You're the one with the script and
creative vision, as well as the capital investment."
"But not the contacts. And aren't there half a dozen types of producers?
Executive producers, associate producers, assistant producers... ummm... carbon
emission producers... Pick your own title if I hire you. It really doesn't
matter much to me. Call yourself the Great and Powerful Poobah Producer of Oz
for all I care. What matters is the job."
"I see what you mean, sir." Her cheeks dimpled nicely with a mirthful
smile.
"From your perspective, I suppose the most important thing would be the
resume credit."
"Yes, sir."
"Please stop calling me 'sir'."
"Yes, si.. Mist... Frank. Sorry. Force of habit."
"So, what was the other question?"
"Oh, right. Well... I don't mean to count chickens, but... well...
producers usually get a percentage of the gross."
"I have no objection to that in principle, but I'm not ready to discuss
numbers. The quarter million I mentioned would be a minimum payment for the
job, not a maximum. I suppose something like X dollars minimum plus Y percent
if the movie grosses Z amount. But remember, you don't have the experience to
demand too much. I said I'm generous, not stupid.
"Is my proposal agreeable so far?"
"Absolutely, s... Frank. I appreciate the opportunity you're giving me."
"In all fairness, you should understand that I'm willing to make the movie
with only local talent in Texas if I need to, ignoring Hollywood completely, but
I'd like it to be noticed and hopefully even profitable which is less likely if
I don't have professionals working with me."
"Why are you so set on making the movie?"
"There are a number of different reasons, some of which I'm not planning
to share. If you need a business reason, consider this to be both an investment
and an advertisement."
"An ad? This movie is an ad?"
"Remember what I said earlier about special effects? My company has a new
system to create CGI environments for TV and movies. The idea is that you can
buy one of our systems for half a million, then any layman with the ability to
use a computer would be able to quickly and easily create whatever setting they
need. The system has the ability to quickly generate backgrounds for anything
from the Flintstones to ancient India to modern Japan to Renaissance Italy to a
moon colony to a post-apocalyptic New York City. It covers about 2500 locations
in up to 64 different time periods and allows for a couple dozen different
weather effects. And it's as simple as putting checkmarks in boxes."
"Are the cities accurate? I mean, are the layouts and monuments correct?"
"As correct as we can make them, but there are hundreds of generic unnamed
locations too which will have randomly generated layouts. Which you can then
change around as you see fit."
"Won't that put special effects companies out of business?"
"No, but it might force them to step up their game. Our system does not
include CGI animals or people... well, it includes background vehicles, but
that's about it. It doesn't do explosions or lasers or sound effects. And of
course, it doesn't do practical effects."
"It still sounds like it would have taken millions of man-hours to get all
that data gathered together and processed."
"Or some really good programming to gather and sort the data."
"That's going about a thousand times further than my poor programming
skills take me. So this movie is just to show off what your system can do?"
"That's one of the reasons."
"Wow. I'll be curious to see it in action."
"I'm sure I'll be demonstrating it a few times over the next few months."
"You know, this really isn't the normal way movies are made."
"I'm fine with that. If an established method works well, then we'll use
it. If it doesn't, we'll do it our way. I plan to start filming by next
summer, so I expect we'll be doing a lot of things using non-standard methods
just to get things done in time."
I gave her a copy of the script on a flash drive, and we spent the rest of
dinner talking specifics and generalities.
Before we said good night, I told her to be sure to watch for the Fort
Worth Parade of Lights on the news in the next few days, which left her with a
puzzled look.
Alpha monitored her over the next few weeks. Publicly 'Insider Girl'
mentioned that I was in town looking for people to get my movie made and in a
different posting she said that she was working to prep for the job interview of
a lifetime. She kept everything separate.
Privately -- yes, Alpha had easily hacked her login information --
Jennifer (not 'Insider Girl') was working frantically with friends to get things
ready. She had young scriptwriter friends who were working on script ideas and
draft revisions. She had put feelers out to a dozen actors and actresses for
their schedule information and interest in directing. Her apparent choice for
casting director was limited to one person though, a middle-aged motherly type
who had worked with a LOT of big names but only for cartoon and voice-over work.
The people she was talking to and working with were mostly the up-and-
comers, not really the established Hollywood elite.
She emailed me regularly, asking if I wanted this or that or what type of
actor I wanted in what role, etc. The only request I made of her, after a five-
email day, was that she limit herself to one set of questions each day.
* * * * *
Remember when I said that November was a busy month? Still not over.
In those two days between my return from California and Thanksgiving, the
first two independent Alpha pair platforms were completed and readied to send
out.
All of the independent pairs were cyborgs. The Epsilon-style non-cyborg
platforms were still considered a viable build option, but not for independent
functionality. We believed if Eiko was separated from me for more than a couple
weeks, she could possibly become very unstable and a danger to those around her
(and this was over a year after her creation).
Physically the units would include some basic upgrades, including greater
than human strength, flexibility, vision and hearing. They would have some
increased protection from damage, but we would not be able to produce, sort and
install enough nanotubes to offer serious damage resistance to any but the first
few pairs. As further upgrades, materials or designs became available, they
would be upgraded.
The Alpha-Alpha couple was to be placed in Dallas and the Alpha-Beta
couple in Arlington. There were many reasons for the local placement, including
the option of using them for local support when needed, the ability to observe
them if problems arose with the independent pairs and the ability to easily
support or abort the independent operation.
Each pair would be given at least a quarter of a million dollars in
starting funds, with the expectation that they will find a small business to buy
or start. In both their home and business locations they would secretly host
normal computer Alpha platforms. Each pair would receive one nanite pod and a
supply of nanites. In most cases, the independent pairs would not have access
to the facilities needed to produce nanites, so we would have to produce them at
AARD and ship them as needed. (Also meaning we had greatly increased our nanite
production capabilities.)
Their mission was (1) protect me should the need arise, (2) protect
themselves and humans in general, and (3) produce more Alpha platforms. Goal
three was of limited duration. At some point we would cease production of more
mobile platforms. We were estimating that by the end of next year, we should
have close to twenty pairs available for independent operation. A year after
that would give us over sixty pairs; then about 200 pairs; then about 600 pairs.
I still wasn't sure when we were going to halt production. I mean, how many is
too many? How many is not enough?
Goal two had a lot more details to it, but basically consisted of a need
to protect their own existence but not to do so at the expense of their human
neighbors. They were not to act as vigilantes, but they were to protect
humanity as best they could on an individual level, whether it be through
charities or personal action.
The first couple were perfect Aryan specimens on the surface: blonde hair,
blue eyes, tanned athletic bodies. The second pair appeared to be Mexican-
Americans: dark hair and eyes with light brown skin. The legal documentation
Alpha provided showed them to be married citizens-from-birth of the United
States.
Later couples would be of varying ethnicity, and we even planned on
creating a few gay and lesbian couples for target communities likely to welcome
such.
One concession to vanity was that all cyborgs grown locally would be
attractive. I suppose to really blend in we should have made most of them of
average appearance and a bit overweight, but... I just couldn't do it.
I arrived home from California on Sunday. Alpha-Alpha and Alpha-Beta were
completed Sunday night and went through full testing for most of Monday. Monday
night after the rest of the household was in bed, we brought them all up to my
room, dressed in simple white smocks.
"Hello," I said in greeting. "I realize that this is a pointless little
interaction from one perspective, since all of you have memories copied from
Alpha and the other cyborgs. But sooner or later you will develop your own
individual personalities while staying within your programming, so I want to
personally meet with as many individuals as I can.
"In a non-genetic but very real sense, you are all my children, and I want
you all to succeed. I want you all to blend in with humanity. I want you to
live long lives and improve the world. I want you, your progeny, humanity and
our world all to be better because you were here.
"In many ways you are superior to humans. Remember though that to whom
much is given, much is required. Or if you prefer, with great power comes great
responsibility.
"Eventually Alpha will be revealed to the world. And at some point your
existence will also become public knowledge. I do not know if your individual
identities will become known, but if that happens, I want your lives to be
examples to show the world how computers and humans can live side-by-side.
"Make friends in the community. Help your neighbors move furniture if
they need help. Go to parties to watch sporting events or knit or gossip or
play games. Go to church, at least on major holidays. Go to showers and
bachelor parties. Sponsor a little league team once your businesses are
successful. Things like that.
"I even want you to have children when you think you're ready for the
responsibility. Normal human children, I mean. Pets too if you can find some
that like you." (From previous experience, some dogs got really freaked out
around the cyborgs. Cats got a little skittish but usually didn't have any
major reactions to them.)
I walked down the short line, giving each of them a handshake and kiss on
the forehead. Then I stood back and looked them over.
"You're also here because I would like a physical bonding experience. I
almost feel like I'm asserting some kind of droit de seigneur, but I would like
for Amy and Beatriz to join me in bed, if you are willing."
It was a rather odd physical pair that I had sex with that evening. Amy
was a little taller than me, blonde, blue-eyed with a small upturned nose. She
was a bit Nordic-looking, with nice little B-cup breasts with puffy nipples.
Beatriz was almost a foot shorter than me, with dark hair, dark eyes and heavy
D-cups topped with larger, classic dark nipples.
Of course both were in excellent physical shape, and I spent the next hour
examining their bodies in intimate detail. One significant difference that
jumped out at me when compared to my household women was that these bodies were
designed to look mature. They weren't teenagers, and they didn't have pristine
skin. Alpha had built in little scars and imperfections, and I didn't doubt
that there were background story elements to go with each little piece of forged
history.
I started by placing them side-by-side on the bed and pulling off their
smocks. I kissed Amy, the tall white blonde, exploring her mouth with my tongue
while caressing her breasts with my hands. Then I moved over to the shorter,
darker-skinned Beatriz and gave her the same attention. I worked my way down
each of their bodies in turn, sucking their nipples and tasting their skin,
until I reached their vaginas. I ate them out in order, Alpha-Alpha Amy first,
then Alpha-Beta Beatriz. Their pussies still tasted bland; the human body just
needs time to develop flavor.
I didn't spend much time down there before pushing them back fully on the
bed and crawling up on top. I don't mean to break out of the moment, but the
cyborgs couldn't actually orgasm, so there was no point to eating them out.
They greatly enjoyed the intimacy and attention that came with sex, but trying
to give them orgasms was a pointless endeavor. (Once after an extended
Sisyphean attempt, I was able to give Beta's organic body an orgasm of some
kind, but her computer brain received no rush or feeling or benefit from the
experience.)
Despite having mature bodies, Alpha had built each of them with their
hymen intact specifically so that I could take their virginities. But for
whatever reason, Alpha had requested that I leave their pussies for last, so I
started with Amy's ass.
I had her hold her legs folded close to her torso so that her ass was
raised up slightly. Entering a willing cyborg's asshole is so much easier than
with a human woman who would usually reflexively tighten her anus when touched.
My cyborgs had virtually complete control over all of their bodies' muscles and
reflexes.
It was wonderfully tight and only a few minutes of fucking moved me closer
to the edge than I wanted this early in the encounter. I pulled out and spent a
couple minutes playing with her breasts until I no longer felt about to come.
After the previous day's homecoming fucks, I doubted I had more than two orgasms
in me that evening and didn't want to rush things.
Alpha has gotten very good at reading my body language, and as soon as I
had calmed down sufficiently, I felt a mouth gently engulf cock. Looking down,
I saw Beatriz's small dark head swallowing my cock to the root. Please realize
that this wasn't as nasty as an ass-to-mouth usually was because neither of
these ladies had yet had a bowel movement in their entire lives. Their colons
and intestines were almost pristine in their cleanliness. (Seriously. Over the
next few days, they would each be eating yogurt and such to try to develop the
bacteria necessary for proper digestion.)
Beatriz obviously wasn't trying to bring me off, but she did keep me hard
until I decided to restart the fuck.
Amy's pussy was wonderfully tight as I entered her, and Beatriz licked as
much as she could, both providing exciting stimulation and cleaning up the
virginal blood.
Alpha's skill at simulating natural sexual reactions has greatly improved
over time, so it was very easy to imagine that I was making love to a real
woman. When I spewed my semen at Amy's cervix, she would have convinced any
outside observer that she too had just climaxed.
The two of them applied their tongues to the task of helping me regain my
full hardness. While they were working, I struggled to ignore the two husbands
who were passively watching me perform. I was accustomed to having an audience,
but the fact that they were men was starting to seriously throw me off.
I could ask them to leave, but I didn't want to seem like I was rejecting
them. I know they don't have human emotions, but they would eventually develop
their own personalities and I did not want the memory of me asking them to leave
the room while I fucked their wives to be part of their early individual
memories of me.
I could ask them to join in, except that I wasn't even remotely gay
myself. Then again, it's not as though I would have to fuck them if they joined
in.
"Okay, you two," I said looking at the husband cyborgs. "Ummm... Bert and
Nick." Short for Albert and Benicio. "It's a little weird just having two guys
watch while I make love to your wives. How about if you two join in a little?
Let your wives suck you off while I fuck Beatriz."
They both immediately pulled off their smocks and walked to the bed, their
cocks hardening. Both were an average six inch length, I noted.
I pulled the ladies off of my penis and lay Beatriz down, having her hold
her legs just as Amy had done. Her skin was much darker, like a Hispanic woman.
Her breasts were much larger than Amy's and her nipples both thicker, larger and
darker. I spent more time in her ass than I had with Amy, but I was much less
likely to come quickly this time around.
It was a little exciting watching Amy and Beatriz, lying side-by-side,
holding hands while they sucked off their respective husbands and I pounded
Beatriz's ass then cunt. This was my first orgy with other men in the mix.
Well, with other 'men', that is.
When I finally came into Beatriz's pussy, both men came as well and their
wives drank down their sperm. I briefly wondered how their computer brains
triggered and reacted to their male orgasms; they probably just registered a
small rush of chemicals and that was it.
After I recovered, I wished them all good luck and said goodbye, kissing
the women and shaking hands with the men.
Alpha gave me updates on their progress over time. The Alpha-Alphas
bought a small computer parts and repair shop, while the Alpha-Betas started a
small accounting firm, with emphasis on their multi-lingual support (English,
Spanish, French, Korean, etc). They started their families quickly, with both
Amy and Beatriz giving birth within a year.
* * * * *
The Fort Worth parade was scheduled for Thanksgiving weekend, and we were
ready for it.
Our Alphacar had been repainted so that it looked a bit like the Santa
robot from Futurama but more jolly and without the lasers and missiles. I had
assigned Beta to be the driver and had everyone who wanted to ride shotgun put
their names in a hat. Bubbles won.
Most of AARD was in the crowd that day, including my entire household
(minus androids). The weather was decent enough for late November, and the
parade was in the evening so there were lights everywhere -- lining the streets,
on the floats and attached to marching band instruments.
Our Alphacar came in the middle of the parade, right in front of the high
school band we had sponsored, and there was already a buzz in the crowd from
rumors about it. When we saw it, it was approaching as a car, but it seemed to
have been given a lot of parade space for just a car. It drove up close to the
float in front of it, stopped and started its transformation. I noticed Bubbles
waving enthusiastically during the changeover and was momentarily worried she
might bounce out of her festive low-cut top, but it held fast.
A mighty cheer went up when the car stood revealed as a fifteen foot tall
Santa Claus robot. Then the car-robot started walking and waving. Before it
left our view, it had started a small laser light show on the pavement in front
of us, and Bubbles was tossing small handfuls of candy to the crowd.
Since both of the points of interest in the parade had passed for me, I
started working my way to the end point to check in with Beta and Bubbles.
I found out later that there was one worrisome moment when a little boy of
about six escaped his mother's grasp and ran out from the crowd because he
wanted to ride in the robot. As soon as he got within ten feet, Alpha froze the
robot to avoid stepping on him or kicking him or something. His mother quickly
retrieved him and the parade continued.
As it turns out, there's a tradition of leaving the floats available for
viewing after the parade for a few hours. I'm sure someone told me or it was in
the literature somewhere, but I certainly didn't remember hearing about it. The
result was that Alphacar continued entertaining the crowds for another couple
hours. Not that it did any special tricks, but it cycled through its
transformation every five minutes or so. I noticed a couple news cameras over
by Beta and sent Zatanna, our head of Public Relations, over there to help out
though I made a point to avoid being noticed myself.
Bubbles found me though, running over with her low-cut top showing a very
healthy bounce for just B-cups, and leapt onto me, throwing her arms around my
neck and plastering her lips against mine.
She pulled back and squealed, "That was so much fun! Everyone loves your
Santa-bot, especially the kids!"
"I'm glad you enjoyed it. Did you get a chance to see the other floats or
bands?"
"Blossom recorded it all for me. Do you think we'll be on TV?"
"Yes, I'm pretty sure you'll be on TV. Don't worry, Alpha will record
everything for us."
She gave me another kiss, then leaned in close and whispered, "You're mine
when we get home tonight." Then she let me go and raced off to find her
sisters.
A few hours later, we had all gotten back home, sipped cups of hot cocoa
and slowly drifted off to bed, one or two at a time.
Bubbles and Beta accompanied me to bed, obviously chosen because they were
the Alphacar drivers that evening. They were an odd pairing because Beta
usually only joined in with other Alpha platforms, and Bubbles usually had her
sisters with her.
As we were climbing the stairs, I asked, "Bubbles, you must have been in a
lot of parades before back home. Why so excited about this one?"
She looked thoughtful for a moment. "I think it's because this time no
one knew who I was."
"Come again?"
"I mean before it was always The Powerpuff Girls on parade. This time I
got to be in a parade as just me."
"In a giant robot car."
"Yes, as me in a giant robot car. This time I could just have fun without
having to be a... uhhh..."
"Superhero?"
"A role model."
We entered my bedroom, and I turned to close the door behind us. By the
time I had turned back around, Bubbles was just finishing her wiggle as her
pants and panties fell to the floor, her shirt and bra already tossed off to the
side. I think even Beta was surprised at her speed.
Apparently dissatisfied with our slow place, she manhandled me onto the
bed and proceeded to quickly strip me down. Beta caught up with us and joined
us on the bed, naked, just as my undershorts were pulled off, leaving me clad
only in my socks.
I hadn't been given time to get hard, so Bubbles and Beta lay down on
either side of me, sharing my cock between them. Bubbles is not bi-sexual, but
she has no qualms when it comes to putting on a display with other women to get
me hard. Though lacking in a certain smoothness, she and Beta shared the
occasional kiss as they slobbered over my cock. When Beta had a solo moment
with my cock and deep-throated me, Bubbles gave a whistle of appreciation.
"Can you show me how to do that?"
"I can show you how to start learning. Most of it will just take practice
on your part."
"Let's start now."
"Okay. The hardest part is overcoming the gag reflex and being willing to
keep trying until you succeed."
Beta actually didn't learn her techniques this way. For that matter, she
doesn't have a gag reflex. But she had literature, videos and Eiko's
experiences to draw from. Overall it would have been easier just to stick
Bubbles in a nanopod and add the knowledge and skills to her brain, but there's
something special about watching a woman be willing to learn a new skill so she
can provide pleasure for you.
They spent about fifteen minutes working on it. Fortunately Bubbles never
actually threw up, though I think she came close more than once. By the end of
their training session, Bubbles was able to take my penis in far enough to touch
the back of her throat, but not much further.
I wrapped up the lesson, saying, "Okay ladies, as much as I appreciate
helping a young woman with her education, I think it's time to move on tonight."
"Sure," Bubbles said happily. "I hope you'll let me... learn... with you
more later."
She hopped up and swiftly impaled herself on my cock as I lay on my back.
She bounced a couple times, making sure I was in as deep as she could get me,
then leaned forward and kissed me, pressing her breasts against my chest.
As we kissed, she clutched me tightly, then surprised me by rolling us
over together so that I was suddenly on top. Bubbles was more than willing to
try other positions, but she always preferred the missionary. Not that I minded
very much; I get plenty of acrobatic positions with my other women.
She was very energetic, bouncing her hips up to meet my every thrust,
occasionally wrapping her legs around my ass to hold me still while she kissed
me. About five minutes after we started fucking seriously, she screamed out an
orgasm, announcing her climax to the household, and she kept right on coming for
the next few minutes until I finally let loose inside of her.
"Oh," she whispered hoarsely, "that's always so good. Your turn, Beta."
She lazily pushed me off of her and toward our dark-haired companion.
Beta dutifully sucked me clean and helped me regain my full hardness. She then
crawled over on top of Bubbles, positioning the two of them so that I could have
easy access to both of their pussies, knowing that that is one of my favorite
images.
I spent ten minutes pounding both of Beta's holes before she faked an
orgasm, after which I switched so that I was alternating between the two of
them. We just kept that position while I moved up and down the female offerings
before me -- pussy, pussy, ass, back and forth.
Bubbles screamed out two more long comes and Beta faked one more before I
finally put my second load in Beta's ass.
I left it there for the night, pulling the ladies over to a less sweaty
part of the bed before switching off the lights. We went to sleep that night in
a triple-spoon; my cock was nestled between Bubble's asscheeks and Beta's
breasts were pressed up against my back.
Alphacar didn't get nearly as much notice as I felt it should have, which
annoyed me. Oh sure, there were clips of it on the news nationwide, and to a
lesser extent, worldwide, for the next couple days, but no major followup
stories. Alpha told me it was heavily covered in Japan, where various company
executives were being asked why we were allowed to beat them in construction of
such a robot.
We received a number of invitations to join other parades around the
country, but we politely declined them all. (Well, except for a couple months
later when a Make-A-Wish Foundation kid wanted to ride in a real life
Transformer. We made an exception for him. Made a big production of it.
There's actually a minor side story there: We gave him a drugged drink, let him
take a nap in an office, kept the mother distracted and snuck him into a nanopod
for half an hour. The doctors later reported he seemed to make a miraculous
recovery.)
I suppose I shouldn't have been too upset since I normally would have
preferred to avoid the publicity anyway. It's just that... darn it, it was one
of my favorite personal projects. It should have garnered as much interest as
Alphadroid. Maybe the public had just started to expect this kind of tech from
AARD or maybe they didn't really understand all of the brand new design elements
needed to create it. Whatever the reason, most of the world failed to truly
appreciate my newest toy, thus my annoyance.
I don't invest too much of Alpha's resources in developing my personal
geeky toys, but I usually have her make me a couple different ones each year.
For example, I have a Batman-esque compressed air grapple gun; it works
great though you have to change out the air cartridge with every use.
I have a phaser-like stun gun which would more accurately be called a
neural disruptor, but it's shaped like an old Mark II Phaser. It has a fairly
short range, but it does work... although maybe I should also admit that it
destroys the target's short term memory along with the stunning effect. It is
designed to interfere with the brain's neural electronics. Getting it to stun
instead of kill was apparently very difficult, even for Alpha.
I have Portal-style long-fall boots which could theoretically let a normal
200 lb human fall up to 52 ft before risking damage. That's assuming said
normal human has been extensively trained in how to land while wearing the
boots. Alpha absolutely refuses to let me try them out any higher than five
feet though.
I have a jetpack which can let a 200 lb person fly for 15 to 20 minutes.
Kara and the other characters who remember being able to fly on their own
absolutely love it.
I have a helmet that lets me see what kinds of thoughts someone is
thinking. It isn't mind-reading; it just shows types of thoughts -- long-term
memory access, creativity, lying, dreaming, etc. It doesn't technically have to
be a helmet though. I just wanted it to look like Doc Brown's contraption from
Back to the Future.
I have a Dick Tracy-style watch videophone, a wearable jacket/computer
with contact lens displays, and a new Alphadroid shaped like R2-D2 with a very
short range hologram projector included. There are other projects, but I'm
letting myself be distracted.
To move on with the story, Alphacar's appearance prompted a few requests
from the military to see if we could propose a design for a next generation
tank. We refused the first two inquiries, but eventually put the requests on
hold while we thought about it. I really didn't want to get involved in
military contracts, mainly for security reasons, but there were a few benefits
to the idea. A few months later we quietly sold a few designs to another
military tech designer and let them handle the development.
* * * * *
On my next trip to Los Angeles, I took along Eiko as well, finally bowing
to Alpha's demands that I have a minimum of two bodyguards when I travel. Eiko
had been developing wonderfully, both mentally and emotionally, and I felt she
deserved a reward. (While not really needed with the cyborgs, Eiko's purely
organic mind benefited from positive reinforcement like any other human.)
Our small company plane was too cramped to allow for comfortable sex, so a
few months back we had removed four of the seats and replaced them with a padded
bench which could fold out into... well, it was still way too small to be termed
a "bed" but it was a large enough padded surface that I was able to introduce
Eiko to the mile-high club.
On this visit, we rented a larger suite and set up a sample AARD
Environment Generation System (EGS) in the main room.
Miss Tuesday had a fairly comprehensive list of people to meet with and
consider. I stayed for a week, having about three meetings a day.
One of the first interviews was with Jennifer's top choice for writers,
and she introduced us to the writing team of George Chen and Franco Rodrigez.
The two had written for TV and had tried writing for movies, but had not yet had
any feature work actually produced.
George was a Chinese-Californian who rarely ever talked. Franco on the
other hand... Well first of all, yes, Franco intentionally spells his last name
incorrectly, without the 'u'. Apparently he believes it visually sets him apart
or something. Second, he was obviously gay. I mean really, over-the-top, limp-
wristed caricature gay, with a prancing gait, lipstick and mascara, wearing
pink, flowery shirts with ascots. (Thank god he didn't go around calling
everyone 'girlfriend'.) Third, he had the energy of a ferret on sugar-coated
crack, constantly bouncing around the room, pacing, jumping and even skipping
back and forth. He even spoke as if pausing to breathe was something to be done
only on special occasions.
"...So when the movie ends, you have the professor dead, which is a
downer, but he's old and he finally got his 'Free Luna' so it's not so bad.
It's like his death was the sacrifice needed to pay for the victory.
"Mike on the other hand has the potential to be such a fun character in
the movie, especially if you play up his sense of humor, so his death at the end
of the movie will actually turn a victory, rah-rah-we-won ending into a downer
ending, and movies that have downer endings don't do as well. They just aren't
as popular; people don't want to go see them again or recommend them to friends.
"The thing to realize is that the big relationship in the movie isn't
Manny and Wyoh, it's Mike and Manny. Mike really only helps the revolution
because Manny asks him to. Before the bombing at the end, Mike sends Manny out
of the city where it's safe because he's worried about him. They are the real
center of the story, and when Mike dies, that turns a good SciFi movie into a
tear-jerker, though admittedly not a traditional one. In a way, I suppose it's
kinda like Old Yeller. Well, no, not really. Never mind.
"So here's my suggestion: First you make sure you include the story bit
about him printing out jokes for Manny so Manny can tell him if they're funny
and if they are funny then whether they can be funny more than once. We put
that really early in the film and then once or twice in the middle of the film
we show Manny reading through the jokes and marking notes on them for Mike.
Then at the end, after Narrator Manny tells us that Mike is dead but he hopes
he'll wake up again someday, the last shot in the film is Mike's printer
starting up on its own and more jokes printing out for Manny to read. That way
you aren't technically saying that Mike is still alive, but the audience will
want to believe it's true. Plus it bookends the film. Gives you a good sense
of closure, that everything is going to be all right."
Finally he took a deep breath and paused. "So... what do you think?"
George and Jennifer looked on expectantly.
I paused a moment to consider. Having Mike alive at the end had been
suggested before, but no one had ever come up with a good way to do it that kept
things true to the story. "It sounds like it could work out well. Beta, what
do you think?"
"In general I always prefer a faithful adaptation. At the same time, I
admit that I would like for Mike to survive the story. I'll leave this decision
up to you."
"Well, I would also like to see Mike survive, and this sounds like a great
compromise between a completely faithful ending and a happier ending. All
right, Franco, George, welcome to the team."
I stood up and shook hands with them. Or more accurately, I shook hands
with George, and Franco laid his limp hand in mine and let me shake it.
When I stood back, he jumped up and let out a loud 'whoop'. He ran over
to Jennifer and swept her up in a big hug, saying, "Thank you, thank you, thank
you, Girlfriend!"
I sighed mentally at the completion of the stereotype. At least he wasn't
trying to call me 'girlfriend'. I like to think I'm socially liberal and open-
minded enough, but he was just a bit too over the top for me. It really felt
like he should have been on a bad TV sitcom.
Still, he seemed to understand the story and its themes and had come up
with a good change to the ending. Actually it was the first significant
addition to Heinlein's story that I had accepted.
I had the two writers sign a contract requiring them to deliver their
first draft by the end of January. Not a huge amount of time, but they had a
starting script and it was just an adaptation. They would be paid $25K now and
$25K more on delivery of the draft. If I liked it and wanted them to continue
working on it, additional payment would be made. If they remained the primary
writers throughout the entire project, their salary would come to a total of
$500K. For writers who have never before had a movie made, I thought it was
good pay, and it stayed within Alpha's projected budget.
The casting directory Jennifer had picked out for me was a middle-aged
woman who looked like a suburban mom wearing a power suit. Her name was Andi
Groman, and she had the most extensive resume of anyone on Jennifer's interview
list. (And she was indeed a suburban mom in a power suit.) While she had
worked with a huge list of top actors and actresses, all of her casting work had
been for cartoons and other voice work, and she was looking to expand her resume
a bit.
Her rolodex was lacking the top A-list names, the actors who commanded $5+
million per picture, but then again we didn't want them anyway.
I was ready to hire her after only a few minutes.
After liking her writers and casting director choices, I took Jennifer
back to our hotel and led her into the bar. I ordered us a round of champagne
and we sat down.
"I know we're not finished going down the list, but I'm comfortable enough
to hire you based on your results so far, so congratulations!"
We clinked glasses and drank, Jennifer looking slightly flushed.
"Wow. I guess I need to... I mean, I had an agent friend of mine work up
a contract just in case, but... ummm... what terms were you thinking of?"
"Terms will need to wait til we finish going through your list of names.
Your pay and/or percentage will be based on your usefulness, but... if it's not
too rude to ask, what do you earn working for Mr Blanchard?"
"About three and a half grand a month."
To me that sounded like a lot given that her job was mostly just a
glorified receptionist/secretary for a man who had maybe one job every couple
years. Maybe it was a cost-of-living thing on the west coast?
"Well, if nothing else you suggest works out and the movie is a complete
flop, I think I can still guarantee you... hmmmm... a hundred grand from this
project. If you and your list continue to be as useful as you have been so far
AND the movie makes a profit, you'll probably end up a millionaire.
"As to a contract, give it to Beta and let her look it over, but I think
we need to wait til we finish seeing how useful your list is before we sign any
specific terms."
The four of us sat and talked for a while, eventually ordering dinner too.
Beta later reported this conversation which occurred while I was in the
men's room.
"So is Frank dating one of you?" Jennifer asked.
"Not really," replied Beta. "He doesn't have a single, steady
girlfriend."
"Is he in the closet or something?"
Eiko laughed. "Definitely not."
"If you want to seduce him, go right ahead," Beta reassured her. "I
understand he's quite a skilled lover."
Jennifer blushed, and that ended that little conversation. I'd speculate
that Beta's comment stuck in Jennifer's mind because she started acting
differently toward me. Up until then she had regarded me with a combination of
respect and condescension -- probably respect for my self-confidence, my
achievements and my self-made wealth, and condescension definitely because of my
naivete regarding how Hollywood worked. In some ways, I was like a near-sighted
bull trying to navigate a maze by charging straight ahead.
At the same time, I had swept her up in my confidence that I would make
the movie. I certainly am confident because I have seen what Alpha and I have
accomplished so far and know that very little is beyond our capabilities when we
focus on a task.
Adding to that was the self-confidence I had developed regarding the
fairer sex. Sure I was smoother and more relaxed within the controlled setting
of my household, but I had amassed enough experience with the opposite sex that
I felt with certainty, rightly or wrongly, that I could give any woman the night
of her life. And yes, I know my ego has been over-inflated, so I try not to let
things go to my head (which was difficult given how Alpha kept trying to send
women to me).
Between Jennifer and Andi, they had come up with an interesting proposal
for director: Baron Hart. Baron was an actor who had slowly been rising to
prominence over the past few years, with roles like being a major villain in a
Batman movie, but my favorite one of his roles was as a very likeable PR man for
the tobacco industry.
Baron was a pretty talented actor and like many actors, he was interested
in trying out the director's chair. He was also one of their top choices for
the role of Mike (and his virtual alter ego, Adam Selene) so we had an
opportunity to fill both a character slot and the director's slot for a single
salary.
They had already felt him out for the possibilities, but I was concerned
that he may not have the experience to direct a technically difficult movie. At
the same time, I had to admit that he would probably do well as Adam, and maybe
as Mike too.
As it turns out, Baron was in town so we arranged a meeting. We got
caught up discussing the movie and talked for four or five hours. Beta subtly
quizzed him to determine his movie-making knowledge on the other side of the
camera, and he seemed to be pretty solid in most areas except when it came to
how to do CGI, green screen and special effect shots.
We eventually worked out a plan for Beta to be Baron's assistant and
handle the technical details for him (which also involved convincing Baron that
Beta knew enough about film making to be able to handle the job).
We set up our first demonstration of the AARD Environment Generation
System for Baron (and Andi and Jennifer). We rented a 100+ inch HD TV from the
hotel and hooked it up to the system. Then we spent the next few hours
demonstrating the power and flexibility of the system by taking requests (or
more accurately, being challenged).
"Rome in 0 BC."
"Okay, now do post-apocalyptic Seattle, Washington."
"How about Shanghai during the Ming Dynasty?"
"Chichen Itza before Columbus."
"World War II Dresden."
We were able to show and explore the desired locations for about 9 out of
10 requests. And of course, we spent some time showing off our designs for
retro-futuristic Heinlein-style lunar cities.
The system was able to show everything from sweeping overhead shots to
back alleys to inside most buildings. In long distance shots, we could show
crowds and vehicles, though such mobile animations were not intended to be
viewed close-up.
These were high quality environments, generally rendered in less than ten
minutes. And when I say 'high quality', I mean the settings could be cranked up
to many times better than HD quality (though each jump in quality also increased
the rendering time -- 1080i generally took 5-10 minutes to create and render a
new city from scratch).
I showed off some of the more in-depth options and flexibility of the
system, such as how to customize the city layout or individual buildings. You
could select the weather, blow up buildings, show buildings under construction
and more. Those options were all there, but the big benefit was how you could
spend one minute making selections, then sit back and let the computer provide
you with a finished realistic city.
We were to repeat this demonstration four more times before shooting
began, each time for increasingly larger groups. Eventually we left behind a
system for Baron to work with so he could customize the moon cities for the
movie and set up all types of camera shots.
When we started discussing who should fill the other roles, Andi cautioned
me.
"Don't expect to get Angelina Jolie to play Wyoh or Morgan Freeman to play
the Professor. While there's always an outside chance of getting a big name to
join your movie, I think the best we're likely to get are former big names or
up-and-comers. We may have a decent chance to snag someone who used to get
above-the-title billing and wants to make a comeback, but our best bet is for B
and C-list actors."
I'm going to skip over a lot of the casting discussions, interviews, setup
and fiddly bits. I'm pretty sure most readers would consider it dull, and it's
not necessary for the story. Still there are some points that could use
discussion.
I don't know if the "casting couch" still exists in Hollywood or not, but
I made sure we didn't have one. That may surprise some people, but I disapprove
of the notion of using sex to get ahead in business or requiring sex for someone
to be hired. That's not to say that I didn't have sex with people involved in
the movie. I certainly did, and I'll get to those stories in a little bit. BUT
those encounters all happened after our business relationship was decided.
When it came to the major movie roles, I actually only got one of my ideal
castings: Jonathan Heart signed on to play the Professor. If you've seen
Hellboy, he played the professor in that movie too, and I wanted him to partly
repeat that performance. Oh sure, the Professor in TMIAHM is an older, devious,
radical political revolutionary, but the character fits very well.
We got one A-list movie actor to play a supporting role: Mick Gage. Mick
is known for explosion-laden action movies, but he's done a lot of well-regarded
drama and comedy roles too. He's also a bit of a nerd when it comes to SciFi
and comic book stuff. When he heard that someone was making a big-budget-ish
Heinlein movie, he wanted in. After meeting him in person, I was persuaded to
give him the role of Stuart Renee LaJoie. He doesn't quite fit the role (a rich
European tourist with a vaguely ill-defined aristocratic background), but
adjusting the character to be an American ex-patriot tourist would still work
perfectly well for the story. Plus since we cut the polygamous line marriage,
the role was a little smaller than in the book so we would probably only need a
couple weeks of Mick's time, which also meant that he wasn't going to expect a
$10 million payday.
For Wyoh, we almost went with Julia Bend (two auditions), an actress I
mainly knew from her recurring role as an evil vampire in the Buffy and Angel TV
series. Then we almost went with Lori Finn Broyles (three auditions), who was
on Twin Peaks and played the bad guy in MiB2. Eventually we decided on an up-
and-coming TV actress named Olive Wilder (five auditions). Olive had been
making a name for herself on a TV medical drama on FOX, but she was also just
finishing filming a major role for Tron 2 for Disney. We happened to catch her
at exactly the right moment. Another year and her schedule probably would have
been too full to sign on with us.
Manny, the lead role, was a tricky one. Manny is largely an every-man
character. Yes, he has a Russian accent, has an interchangeable cybernetic arm,
is the top computer repairman on the Moon and is best friends with Heinlein's
first A.I., but for all of that, he's still a very down-to-earth guy who gets
caught up in the revolution by accident. We didn't want a super-handsome guy or
a smooth-talker.
My personal first-choice was Benny del Tono, but he wasn't interested. We
went through a few other possibilities and eventually we signed Carey Afflick
(five auditions). Although Carey may be best known as the younger brother of
Ben, he's been in a large number of films, including the Oceans Eleven series.
He wasn't a master actor, but he was pretty good. He just never reached the A-
list and was rarely the leading man.
I never would have thought of him when casting for the role, but his agent
got in contact with Andi and convinced her to give him a shot. This role would
be a little out of type for him, but he gave some very good readings at the
auditions.
Jennifer continued earning her pay, finding a special effects company to
make our costumes and props, a good camera crew, etc, etc. (It takes a LOT of
people to make a professional movie.)
Amid all of the preparations and meetings, during my fourth trip to
Hollywood, I visited the office we had rented for Jennifer to work out of. She
had a secretary of her own now (which she negotiated for in her contract with
me) and was feeling on top of the world. Or more accurately, at that particular
moment she looked like she was feeling like hell.
Her L-shaped desk was piled with DVD cases, a few VHS tapes and a small
pile of paperwork. Jennifer herself was looking a bit bleary-eyed as she turned
away from a TV/DVD set on a side table.
"What's wrong," I asked, trying to sound sympathetic.
"I've been watching audition videos for the past six hours while
simultaneously fielding calls from their agents and trying to keep George from
crashing."
"Isn't most of that Andi's job?"
"Yes, but half of everyone are sending their tapes to both of us."
"I've been getting some myself, but I just send them back unopened."
"Wish I could do that."
I snapped my fingers in front of her face a few times. "Jennifer! You
absolutely can do that too. Now get up!"
"I can't. Even without the videos, I still have about a thousand
different calls to make."
"Consider this an order from your boss. You need to relax a little or
you're going to burst. Or collapse. Or collapse due to bursting."
I rounded her desk and hooked my hands under her arms, pulling her up.
She didn't give much resistance, except to step back enough to grab her purse.
As I pushed her out of her office, I instructed her secretary to hold all
her calls and to take a shot at organizing the discs on Jennifer's desk.
"Where are you taking me?" Jennifer asked as I pushed her out the door.
"Don't know," I admitted. "Where do you usually go to relax and have
fun?"
"Uhhh... different places. To just relax, maybe a drink at Around the
Corner?"
"Around the Corner?"
"It's a... well, kind of a bar, I suppose."
"Kind of?"
Jasmine, my bodyguard and chauffeur this trip, drove us to 'Around the
Corner'. Aside from being short and female, she did her best to look the part,
dressed in a dark suit and sunglasses.
As it turns out, 'kind of a bar' means a club mish-mash that sells
alcoholic drinks. They had pool tables and darts, like bars and pubs, but they
also had video games, skeeball, karaoke and a small dance floor.
We got there maybe around 4, so it wasn't overly busy yet. Jennifer
excused herself to 'powder her nose' and returned looking much less hell-bound.
We got a couple very good burgers, drank some beers and played some games. We
did our best to avoid talking about the movie, instead exchanging stories about
our other jobs.
Jennifer became gradually more and more relaxed, and we left around 7:30
before either of us actually became drunk.
Jasmine drove us to Jennifer's apartment building where she hesitated
before inviting me up for a nightcap. (Yes, she actually used the word
'nightcap'. Perhaps she's seen too many movies?)
Her apartment was small but clean, with one wall covered by bookcases full
of DVDs.
"So would you like some coffee or wine or...?"
"Whatever you're having will be fine."
I sat down in her loveseat, making sure to leave room for her to join me.
"Are you feeling more relaxed now?"
"Yes, but in the back of my mind I still know I have huge to-do list
waiting for me back at the office."
She sat down next to me and handed me a glass of white wine, which I
politely sipped.
"I think you're just used to doing everything that's been handed to you.
You need to learn to do the important stuff and let other people handle their
own jobs. I had the same problem not too long ago. I burned out trying to do
too much and crawled into bed for a couple weeks as a result. I don't want that
to happen to you."
"Thanks. I'll try."
We each took another sip of wine and sat quietly for a moment.
"So..." she said, obviously prompting me to take a first step.
"Jennifer," I said quietly. "One of my personal rules is that I will
never make the first move on anyone who is working for me. You are a beautiful,
attractive young woman, and if you want anything to happen tonight..."
I let the sentence drop. She obviously had a moment of internal debate,
then took my glass from me and set them both down on a side table, quietly
muttering "The hell with it."
Then she jumped me, kissing me intensely and moving so that she was
partially on my lap, her breasts pushing against my chest.
We sat there for a moment, just making out... kissing supplemented with
wandering hands. Then clothing started being pulled off and our breathing
became a bit more labored. She pulled me upright and, not letting go, led me to
her bedroom while we dropped pieces of clothing all the way.
By the time we reached her bed, I was naked and she was down to her
panties. I pushed her gently down to her bed, took in her form and followed her
down. I may have mentioned before that she had a nicely soft body, as opposed
to the tight, toned look so popular in Hollywood. She was by no means fat, but
she was very curvy. Now uncovered, I estimated her breasts to be maybe small C
cups, with large pale areolae (having previously guessed D cups... push-up bras
maybe?).
Having been taken to her bed, I took the lead, slowly working my way down
her body. Her breasts rolled around so wonderfully, with such stiff nipples,
that I found it difficult to move past them, but eventually I made it down to
her pussy, pulling her panties down her legs to give me access.
Her pubic hair was trimmed enough to avoid showing when wearing a bathing
suit, but was otherwise unrestrained. I brushed it to the side and pulled her
lips apart to reveal damp, pulsing inner lips. Surprisingly she tasted faintly
of strawberries. I tried to make a mental note to ask her where that came from
later on, but ended up forgetting about until our second intimate encounter.
I spent a few minutes down there, exploring and experimenting to discover
her likes and dislikes. I had her coming fairly quickly, getting her off twice
with my tongue within maybe five minutes.
She lay back, looking radiantly tired. "Oh god, that was good. Quick,
go. Bathroom." She pointed. "Gargle. Condoms in the cabinet, top shelf."
With my hard-on pointing the way, I went to follow her commands. I was a
bit shocked too. I had never before had a woman tell me to open her bathroom
cabinet. It's like they try to protect their mystique by never letting us see
that they use toiletries or hygiene products.
She had Scope by her sink, so I rinsed off my mouth and gave a quick
gargle. Just before I reached for her above-the-sink medicine cabinet, an arm
reached out from behind me and a voice said, "It's all right; I'll get it!" as
Jennifer apparently decided that she didn't want me peaking into her cabinet
after all.
She patiently waited for me to leave the bathroom until she retrieved a
box of condoms for us to use. Two boxes, actually. After closer examination of
the size of my cock, she tossed one box off to the side.
Once back in bed, she gave me a quick kiss before moving down to my
manhood, applying lips and tongue enough to return me to full hardness. Then
she tore open a foil packet, unrolled a condom onto my cock, tore the condom in
doing so and repeated the attempt a second time with a fresh rubber, finally
succeeding.
Far from taking me out of the mood, all of this was exciting me a bit. A
lot of my bedroom encounters were unrealistically perfect -- perfect bodies, no
hang-ups, coordinated movements, synchronized orgasms -- that a little bit of
fumbling this time just gave the experience some personality.
She gave a very pleasant, ego-boosting hiss as I worked my way inside of
her. Though no virgin, she felt pretty tight and I think I bottomed out just
before I was fully inside of her. It apparently didn't matter because she
wrapped her legs around my buttocks and pulled me in close, reaching up with her
hands to pull our faces together for a kiss.
That kiss was the last bit of tenderness for awhile because after it, the
fucking began. And I mean 'fucking', not 'making love'. Jennifer wanted sex.
She wanted orgasms and sweaty bodies plastered against each other. She kept us
facing each other the entire time, but even with that one limitation, we were
rolling around, changing pace and position all the time. She didn't want more
than a minute at a static pace or in the same position. And when we kissed, her
tongue went everywhere. Mouths were attached to nipples, ears and necks. She
didn't want anal sex, but fingers popped in bottoms with regularity.
About forty-five minutes later, I was worn out, having filled two condoms.
Jennifer was... well, she was satisfied at least. I'm pretty sure she could
have enjoyed a few more orgasms, but she was willing to let me call it a night.
(I'd like to point out that I have lasted longer than that before and since, but
the constant changes in pace and position apparently wore me out sooner than
normal.)
After we had rested for a few minutes, I leaned over and kissed her cheek.
"I have morning meetings and don't have a change of clothes here, so I
really need to head back to my hotel room. Is that okay with you?"
"Huh?" She took a moment to register what I said. "Oh, sure. And thank
you. That was very... not sure if 'relaxing' is the right word..."
"Stress relieving?"
"Hah! More than that, but yes."
"I'd really like to do this again. Maybe we can even have an official
date."
"I don't know. Tonight was pretty date-ish, though I usually don't go
this far on a first date."
"Well, from a certain point of view, we've been out to dinner together a
number of times already, so if you wanted to..."
"Hmmm... nope, not dates, but thanks for trying. I guess I can just be
kinda slutty on occasion." She said this lightheartedly with a hint of a hidden
grin.
"Don't worry. It's our little secret," I reassured her.
I grabbed a damp washcloth from the bathroom and wiped away the worst of
my sweat as we talked.
"So, how many girlfriends do you have?"
"Hey now," I chided. "I don't kiss-and-tell. But I will say that I'm not
in any kind of exclusive relationship right now."
"I've noticed that you're... uhhh... a very... private... person." This
was a rather halting comment, and she was obviously afraid she might offend me
if she chose the wrong phrasing.
"Very true," I agreed. "My desire for privacy is somewhat at odds with my
appearances alongside my android and such, but I really do prefer to stay out of
the spotlight."
"I was going to see if you wanted to go to any 'Hollywood parties,' but
I'm guessing..." (She did the air-quotes hand gestures when she said 'Hollywood
parties'.)
"I would probably thank you for the offer then say no. It would take a
lot for me to want to mingle with people who thrive on publicity."
"If that's so, then you must have serious personal reasons for wanting to
make a movie. People generally don't produce movies because they want to avoid
publicity."
"That's one of the reasons I hired you, remember? One of your jobs is to
shoulder the burden of publicity."
"I remember, I just didn't believe you at the time. I'm still not sure I
do, but I'll try to take you at your word."
Now mostly dressed, I sat down on the bed next to her. Jennifer was
stretched out naked above the covers, showing no modesty at the moment. She
was, however, avoiding my eyes.
"I did a porno once," she blurted out.
I have no idea why she felt she had to tell me or why she had to tell me
now. I'm sure there was some chain of logic in there somewhere, but I couldn't
see it. Still, this was obviously something of a confession for her, so treated
it as such.
"I see," I said, trying not to sound too serious.
"I needed money really badly at the time, so I bleached my hair as a
disguise and went in. I had one scene with another girl and gave a blowjob to a
guy who joined us. Then I cleaned up, cashed my check, dyed my hair back and
never did it again."
"I understand why you might not put it on your resume, but at the same
time it's not much to be ashamed of. Why tell me?"
"It's just that, if we're going to date at all -- and I'm not trying to
put pressure on you, because we live two time zones apart, so I'm pretty sure
nothing would work out even if we wanted to try -- but if we're going to date
even a little, then you should know now before you find out by accident."
Alpha hadn't told me, so it's likely she didn't know about that particular
tick on Jennifer's resume. And if Alpha didn't know, then it wasn't readily
available information online. I think Jennifer just had the wrong idea about
how likely she was to be found out. Or about how much porn I watched.
"I'm glad to know, but it doesn't really make a difference one way or the
other. It would probably matter if you were still making pornos, but other than
that... no."
"This... this isn't going to change anything, right?"
"Which thing? Us having sex or the revelation of earlier wild days?"
"Ummm, either, I suppose."
"Well, I now feel I can call you for a date without risking sexual
harassment, so I suppose that's a change. As to the other, I don't watch that
much porn anymore, but I'll keep an eye out for you when I do."
She whacked me with a pillow.
"I deserved that," I agreed as I stood up. "Are you free for lunch
tomorrow?"
She crawled to the side of the bed and looked around for her purse. She
pointed across the room to a chair, and I dutifully retrieved her purse from
where it hung from the arm. After checking her phone's appointment calendar, we
worked out a lunch date in two days.
Before I left, she made me promise to give her at least one 'booty call'
every time I visited California or she visited Texas.
Overall the pre-production setup went pretty well, especially given that
we were planning to start filming less than six months after we hired Jennifer.
It helped a lot that we had Alpha and her system covering most of the special
effects. Heck she designed and directed the building of the most complex wire
system in Hollywood history. Well, movie or Texas history, since it wasn't
built in California.
Since the movie was set on the moon and we wanted a large degree of
realism, the actors would need to look like they were walking in a low gravity
environment. We could avoid some of this by having the actors mostly stationary
in some scenes, but that wouldn't be a useable approach most of the time.
Alpha set up a large warehouse-sized shooting stage in North Texas with a
largely automated wire system. Someone would put on a harness, zero out the
weight balance with the press of a button while your feet were pulled up, then
be able to walk, run or jump as if they were under 1/6th normal Earth gravity.
Most of the harnesses didn't allow more than 30-40 feet of movement, but there
were half a dozen 'star' harnesses which could move across the whole stage.
The lines were designed not to cross paths and tangle, but in the combat
scenes, we ended up having three or four tangles each day. We also had an
average of one harness per day needing repair. Still the system worked pretty
well overall.
The actors had a lot of fun getting used to the system and figuring out
how to move around smoothly and naturally. I tried it out myself and it was
like a private carnival ride.
On a side note, after the movie wrapped, we kept the shooting stage and
rented it out a few times a year to different movie productions.
We wanted more realism in this movie than was normally seen in SciFi.
While the source material was fairly scientifically realistic, we went one extra
step beyond. For their lasers, we did not add in visible beams except for one
scene where they had smoke and dust. That is how lasers in the real world work.
Unless you have a scattering effect, you cannot see the laser beam as it travels
through the air. And renaming 'lasers' to something else like 'phasers' or
'blasters' does not get around the problem that a beam somehow radiating energy
in all directions is losing power in a very inefficient way.
Instead, bowing to the needs of visual media, we added little pieces of
transparent colored glass-like plastic to the top of each gun. When the shooter
(or camera) looked through the plastic, he was able to see the laser beam, but
otherwise you would only see the effect on the target. We justified it by
saying the plastic sightings showed the infrared heating of the air or
something. At least it was a step in the right direction (where 'right' means
'real').
Before actual filming started, I was offered a cameo appearance but turned
it down. I think I've been pretty clear on the whole don't-want-to-be-in-the-
public-eye aspect of my personality.
On the other hand, I did offer roles as extras to everyone at work and
home who wanted to be in the movie. AARD practicality closed down for a day
when we bussed most of the employees a few miles across town to the movie stage
for a crowd scene. I had decided that since 90% of the movie would be filmed in
a sound stage, one location was as good as any other so why not film somewhere
convenient for me?
As for my household, everyone but the cyborgs signed on. Bubbles,
Blossom, Jane and Linda all tried out for speaking roles, but only Blossom
actually got one (consisting of one line). Bubbles and Linda got a crowd
reaction close-up which made the final cut. Jane... well, she didn't take her
audition very seriously, so you have to freeze-frame to pick her out of the
crowd.
Before I get into the next part of this story, I'd like to state for the
record that I didn't know that Olive was married at the time. I try to never
mess with married women. Marriage may not be for me, but I still respect the
institution. Okay, she was separated, and she didn't wear a ring or act like a
married woman, but she was not divorced, so if I had known, I never would have
slept with her. Probably not.
That having been said, she's really hot. She has elegant features and
long auburn hair, dyed blonde for part of the movie. (Point of trivia: She's
actually a natural blonde who dyes her hair dark to be taken seriously as an
actress.) I was attracted to her right away, but that's not uncommon for me.
I first met her at her audition, where she gave Wyoh's speech from the
meeting at the beginning of the book, then did a scene with Carey to see if they
had any chemistry. They worked together pretty well, which was a little
surprising to me, mainly because I had never seen Carey in an on-screen romance
where he wasn't a smarmy lothario.
Later when we were filming in Texas, Olive occasionally joined me in the
catering tent, but it didn't seem like a big deal because we always ate in
groups. Heck, I was only on set maybe one day out of three on average. I
flirted with her a little but not seriously.
She seemed pretty interested in my charitable works and eco-friendly
products, just like many of the other liberal people I had met in Hollywood. I
don't mean to imply that 'liberal' is or should be considered a derogatory term,
though I'm perfectly willing to promote 'Hollywood liberal' as a new universal
insult. You know, they'd be people who read an article, think they understand
the subject and believe that their opinions are much more important than the
views of experts, let alone the rest of the world.
One odd note that I don't think I've really covered before is that Alpha
is the pro-environment part of our duo. She tends to take the long view about
things. While she doesn't care very much about miscellaneous species going
extinct, she does care about things like overpopulation, a stable ecosystem,
'super-bug' disease strains, disappearing natural resources and other things
that may threaten our existence a hundred or a thousand years from now. Me?
I'm pro-environment, sure, but only in a general and non-specific way. Still I
take Alpha's concerns seriously and help her work towards her goals as best I
can.
To continue, Olive was (and presumably still is) a Hollywood liberal,
which I say in a non-insulting way. I refused to get involved in any political
discussions with her, telling her that I don't care much for politics one way or
the other. (Which is true, although Alpha has started making calculated
donations to try and build up some political favors which we may need in the
future.) At least she seemed to come by her beliefs honestly, as opposed to
just ignorantly going along with the crowd.
Regardless, our differences were enough that I did not pursue her with
anything more than polite flirting.
She, on the other hand, was very curious about me. I had come out of
nowhere a few years ago and had quickly established AARD as the preeminent
developer of future technologies in the country, maybe in the world. I
occasionally gave away inventions that could have been worth millions for the
good of the planet. I refused to develop for the military. And now I had come
to Hollywood to make a movie, which was promising to push special effects
forward a few years with a single product.
To top it all off, I kept mostly out of the public eye, though every time
I was seen, it was in the company of gorgeous women who appeared to be utterly
devoted to me.
From her perspective, I was the perfect mystery man, now sitting next to
her in the flesh, physically fit and flirting with her.
At least, that's how Alpha analyzed the situation when she started asking
everyone questions about me. Beta, of course, suggested she go ahead and try to
seduce me. I know she talked to Jennifer, but don't know what was said in that
conversation. (Jennifer and I only had sex three times during the filming, due
mainly to incompatible schedules, and we both knew that we were only having fun,
not pursuing a relationship.) No one else Olive might have talked to knew me in
any intimate sense.
One Tuesday in June during lunch, Olive asked me for a tour of AARD. She
didn't have any scenes to film for the next couple of days and was looking for
things to do. I was in a good mood at the time and agreed.
After we finished lunch, we hopped in my car and drove back to Fort Worth.
(We were filming most of it in warehouses which had been converted to sound
stages just south of the DFW Metroplex.)
I spent a couple hours that afternoon showing her around a few labs at
AARD, introducing her to Alphadroid and my transformer Alphacar, and even gave
her some sample as-yet-unreleased no-chip artificial nails. (Those things are
seriously no-chip. Alpha made them with some weird new type of thin lattice
ceramics that she sometimes uses to enhance my women's super-strong bones. I
smashed one between a couple bricks to demonstrate its resiliency (a fake nail,
not a bone). A lot of our Alphacars were coated in that material too.)
She smiled a lot, signed a couple autographs for employees, laughed at all
my jokes and showed an intelligent curiosity for our work.
At one point when we were alone, she asked, "How do you find the time to
do everything?"
"What do you mean?"
"Well, you talk about a lot of these projects like you developed them
yourself. You have your robots, your new special effects system, your
artificial limbs, your surgery thingie, and... well, all the other stuff. Plus
you're producing the movie and running your company."
"Ah, I see what you mean. Well, I am pretty busy, but for me, there are
three different levels of involvement. There are personal projects where I
usually work on the project every day. Then there are projects where I give
input and help with ideas or put together some data processing or data mining
software, depending on what's needed. And there are the challenge projects,
where I'll come up with a challenge for one of my engineering teams and let them
handle it.
"I probably work on a dozen projects every week, but only one gets my full
attention, like the artificial blood or Alphadroid.
"You should also remember that not all of our projects are intended to be
commercially viable. Heck, remember Alphacar? Well, we're not planning to sell
those to the public. It was a challenge project for fun. But at the same time,
some of the designs they came up with for the car are being used elsewhere."
All of that was true, for a certain value of truth. At least it was
mostly true, assuming you treat Alpha as multiple teams of engineers and
researchers.
We talked more as we walked, but when we reached the front desk, she
excused herself to visit the Ladies Room.
I chatted with LaShonda, one of our receptionists, for a few minutes.
LaShonda was a very attractive young black woman who had been with AARD almost
since the beginning. I had attended her wedding a year or two before, and at
the moment she was pregnant with her first child. (And no, I had never slept
with her.)
Our conversation eventually touched on Olive, who had signed an autograph
for her. Unfortunately, LaShonda was one of those people who buy gossip
magazines and idolize movie and TV stars a little too much.
"... and seeing her like this, she seems like a regular person!"
I suppressed a sigh. "That's because she IS a regular person."
"Oh, I know," she quickly backtracked. "What I meant was that she..."
Over the past few months, comments like that had become one of my
'buttons,' and I interrupted her. "I know what you meant," I said matter-of-
factly. "One of the problems with society is the star mentality. Yes, good
actors should be congratulated on being successful in their chosen field, and I
can even somewhat understand how they can sometimes command ridiculous salaries.
"BUT I think the longer they work in Hollywood, the more likely they are
to believe that their opinion is somehow more important or weighty than anyone
else's. Or that they deserve reverential treatment because they might be
recognized in public. And a lot of people, especially in California, buy into
those notions.
"Thank god at least Olive hasn't let her ego become overinflated. There
were so many people I met in California who have mostly wasted their lives but
their enormous egos cause them to believe they are immortal in the public's
memory because..."
I trailed off, noticing that LaShonda's eyes were focused on something
behind me. Turning around, yup, Olive was standing behind me.
Damn it! I hate when I get into a lecturing mode. I come off as a know-
it-all complainer. I've sworn off posting comments online precisely because of
that.
"Hi, sorry. I was just complaining about the better-than-thou phonies in
Hollywood..."
"So I heard," she said with an odd half-grin.
"Did you at least hear the part where I pointed out that you aren't like
that?"
"Yes, but I think there was an implied 'yet' in there somewhere."
"Not necessarily. No one completely falls into any sweeping
categorizations like that."
"Actually I know quite a few people who fit into your description pretty
exactly. One of the things I like about your production team is that they're
mostly too young to have egos like that yet."
"Yeah, it is nice that my ego is the only overinflated one around."
"Oh really?"
"Yup, I'm horribly full of myself at times, I'm just too shy to show it."
"Uh huh," she said, not impressed with my attempt at humor. "Didn't you
promise me dinner at some point?"
I glanced at my watch. It was nearly five. A little earlier than my
normal dinner time, but doable.
"Sure," I said feeling relieved that I hadn't offended her. I took her
arm in mine as we walked out. "What kind of restaurant would you like to
visit?"
She chose BBQ, after which we wandered around just enjoying each other's
company. Fortunately her hair was currently blonde and she wasn't recognized,
or at least wasn't bothered by anyone who did recognize her.
When I drove her home (ie. to her rented condo), she invited me in for a
drink. I'm not much of a drinker but accepted a Tom Collins as we sat on her
couch together. Somehow a few of her blouse's buttons had come undone, and she
was sitting just a little inside my personal space. Now I've been 'seduced'
many, many times over the past few years, but mostly only by women who have been
programmed to lust after me. Still I easily recognized where things were
headed. And if I'm going to be honest about it, the seduction wasn't one-sided.
After only a couple minutes, we were making out. A couple minutes later,
we had hit a feverish intensity and were struggling to strip ourselves, then
each other as we stumbled towards the bedroom. We didn't make it.
In the hallway, I pushed her up against the wall, sliding my cock inside
her. Her slit was wet and slick, practicality dripping with juices. She wrapped
her arms and legs around me, and we kissed as I started pounding her against the
wall. I held her up against various walls for at least five minutes of upright
fucking before she came, biting down on my earlobe as she squealed. The pain
set me off and I blasted off inside her much sooner than I had planned.
When she came down, she slid from my grasp and looked me over.
"I'm sorry. I think I drew a little bit of blood there."
I touched my ear, which was sore and stung a bit, but it didn't seem like
anything was missing. "I'll be fine. Now come on. I'm not done with you by a
long shot."
I led her into the bedroom, then suddenly stopped in realization that I
hadn't even paused to consider... "Condoms! I'm sorry, I completely forgot."
"It's all right. I'm all pilled up."
"Oh, well, in that case..." I picked her up and tossed her onto the bed,
then pounced on top of her.
We kissed again for a moment. Her hands wandered down and fondled my
equipment which was regaining its hardness.
She broke off the kiss, pushed me over onto my back and slid down the bed.
"Here, let me help you out a little," she said before taking a long slow
lick up the shaft of my cock, obviously tasting our mixed juices.
I took a moment to enjoy the view of her naked body, laid out before me on
the bed. She was in her mid-20's but looked like she was at least 30... not
old, just adult. Her breasts were somewhere in the B or C cup range and rolled
around as only natural breasts do. She was slim and healthy and had thin dirty
blonde hair lightly covering her pubic region, though much of it was slicked
down with her leaking juices.
I was hard again a moment later, and she moved up my body and slid into
place above me. Once I was again seated inside of her, she bent down for
another kiss, her tongue teasing mine. She rode me for a few minutes, and I
bounced my hips up to meet her downward thrusts.
After she came, I rolled us over so that I was on top and fucked her that
way through at least two more orgasms before coming a second time myself.
I rolled off of her so that we lay side-by-side.
"That was a thing of beauty," I said.
"Yes, it was," she agreed. Rolling over slightly to look at me, she
continued, "You aren't looking for anything long-term, are you? I mean, don't
take this the wrong way, but I want to keep this casual."
"Really? I mean no, I'm not looking for anything long-term, but I thought
we both had some fun there. If you're still not... not satisfied, I can go
again..."
"No... I mean, yes, I'm pretty well satisfied. Very well satisfied, as a
matter of fact. I just..."
"Then why the immediate brush-off?"
"It's not a brush-off. Well, I guess it is, but not one that takes effect
right away... ugh... It's just, I've had guys get too clingy sometimes, and I
wanted to be sure that you... I mean, I know you have other women, but I wanted
to be sure you didn't make this out to be more than it is."
"Oh, I thought you..." I laughed. "Sorry. Misunderstanding. It's just,
you know, the first thing you say after we finish was that you don't want to see
me again, it makes me think you weren't satisfied..."
"That's not what I said... meant... whatever." She sighed and paused. "I
guess I could have phrased that a bit better, or picked a better time to bring
it up. No, wait a minute. I did say it right, you just took it the wrong way."
She twirled a finger around my nipple distractedly.
This was turning into one of the odder post-coital conversations I had had
recently. I honestly couldn't entirely tell if she was being hostile or
defensive or playful or what. Plus I had apparently misinterpreted what she
said earlier.
"Did I hear you say something earlier about going again?" She reached
down and lightly stroked my cock. "Got a little blue pill in your stomach?"
"Never touch the stuff."
"A manly man, huh? Prove it."
"I'm feeling a little too sweaty. Let's go get cleaned up and see what
happens."
Her bathtub/shower was large enough for two people, but not by much. By
the time we were halfway through washing each other, I was fully hard again. I
pushed her up against the shower wall and fucked her hard from behind. This
being my third time in less than two hours, I was in no hurry to come again, so
after she came again, I pulled out, turned her around and we fucked some more
face-to-face.
By the time I finally came in her a third time, pounding her doggy style
back on the bed, I think she must have come at least four more times.
I had enough presence of mind to text Alpha that I was spending the night
before falling asleep.
I woke up to find the smell of coffee wafting through the condo. Olive
was in her kitchen dressed in my shirt, and possibly nothing else. Feeling a
bit like I was on a TV show, I wandered in wearing only my undershorts and
pants.
"Good morning, stranger," she said with a smile. "I'm not much of a cook,
but I have some fruit and some good organic cereal. Not the crappy stuff you
get in the store, the real stuff, hand-made."
My heart sank a bit at the idea, but when I tried it, it turned out to
actually be pretty tasty.
As we sat eating breakfast, somehow I expected her to be running her foot
up and down my leg or something, but it didn't happen. We just sat there,
crunching hand-crafted granola cereal. Between bites, I looked her up and down.
"Hmmm.... How adventurous are you? Sexually speaking?"
"That's a bit of a dangerous question. I like to think I'm pretty open to
having fun, but I'm not really into much kink."
"That's not what I... weeelllll... I guess it could be slightly kink-ish.
No, it's just that there's something that I've been wanting to try, and it's
kind of only available for a limited time."
"What is it?"
"A surprise. I don't want to build it up too much, but I think it could
be pretty fun."
"It's not public or anything?"
"No, no, no. And no special clothes or bondage or anything like that.
But it will have to be late at night. Hmm... not tonight... how about tomorrow
night?"
"Sure, but I reserve the right of refusal if it's not my thing. What
time?"
"Of course. And let's say... I'll swing by and pick you up around 11pm."
The next evening I picked her up and drove us to the movie set.
Everything was shut down, though we did have a security guard at the gate who
waved us in. Our 'movie studio' consisted of one main converted warehouse, a
couple of smaller buildings, a parking lot and a fence.
We went into the main building where I double-checked that everyone had
left for the day.
"So?" Olive asked.
"So. Have you ever wondered what it would be like to have sex in a low
gravity environment?"
"You're kidding."
"Nope. We'll have to be careful to avoid tangles if we want to change
positions, but I'm pretty sure the equipment will work just fine."
"Isn't this a bit... public?"
"The only person still around is the gate guard. All the rest of the
security is computerized... automated. You know... completely under my control.
We'll get buzzed if anyone else shows up."
I dragged over a prop bed then started to strip, and she slowly followed
suit. I was almost giddy with anticipation. Ever since the idea came to me a
couple weeks earlier, the idea had sparked a child-like anticipation and
enthusiasm. I was originally going to wait for filming to end, then invite a
few members of the household for some high-flying fucks... but if I wanted to do
it with Olive, the time was now.
She dug through her purse for a couple of little bands she used to pull
her hair into a long ponytail, which was probably an excellent notion or
tangling lines would be the least of her worries.
Naked, we strapped ourselves into the harnesses, then gave each other a
quick safety check, with maybe a bit less professionalism than during filming.
The body harnesses were designed to be concealed under clothes, so they were
lightly padded and comfortable. We zeroed out the electronics (to set the
virtual counter-weights), then sat on the bed and started to make out.
Olive was a little stiff and not nearly wet enough, so I moved into
position between her thighs, ready for cunnilingus.
As I stroked her labia, I looked up at her and said, "And no acting
tonight. I only want honest orgasms, all right?"
She gave me a humorously exasperated look and told me to "Just get to
work, tongue boy. I missed out on your famous oral skills last time."
"Famous oral skills?"
"According to rumors."
"What rumors? And what about my cocksmanship? Shouldn't I be famous for
that too?"
In response, she shoved my face into her pubis. In all fairness, I wasn't
being serious.
Although trimmed a bit, Olive didn't shave her privates. Fortunately for
my preferences, her pubic hair was naturally thin and did little to hide her
labia as they pushed out from her mound, eager for attention. I dove in with
enthusiasm, enjoying the opportunity to explore a new taste and discover her
likes and dislikes, how to give her pleasure.
I had forgotten about the harnesses until she got close to her first come
and jerked her thighs down a bit on my shoulders. In normal circumstances, it
would have done no more than push her vagina a little up at my mouth. Under our
pseudo low-gravity setup, it bounced her a foot off the bed and out of my grasp.
A bit surprised, we both stopped for a moment, then laughed. We
restarted, this time with her legs anchored under my arms. That didn't give me
good enough access, so we readjusted so that her thighs were over my shoulders
as before, but I kept at least one hand gripping her leg. For her part, when
she got close this time, instead of pushing her legs down, she instead gripped
my head, holding me close.
I ate her through two orgasms before getting up and joining her on the
bed.
"How about if we keep it simple to start with. Missionary position okay?"
"Sure. Are you sure the lines won't tangle?"
"I think we'll be okay, but no, I'm not sure." Even with Alpha monitoring
and controlling the harness reactions, tangles were still going to be a risk.
Olive lay down and adjusted her lines so her torso and limbs were
relatively free to move. Then I carefully moved in from below. Some of our
lines were rubbing, but not by much.
We quickly found out that we needed to hold onto each other tightly or I'd
bounce right off of her and she off the bed. I swore to myself that next time
I'd bring a few little bungee cords to keep us together.
It took a while, but I fucked her to another orgasm, then came myself a
couple minutes later.
We carefully extracted ourselves and spent a moment resting.
"You still good to go?" she asked?
"Yup. I'm good for at least one more, but I'll last longer the second
time."
"I want to try doing it standing up, just to see what happens," she
suggested.
What happened was that we left the ground, lost control, got tangled and
landed with me on top of her. Her shoulder got a bruise, and Alpha got an
untangling job for the morning. And that was it for doing it standing up.
Despite the bruise, Olive laughed delightedly. "That was hilarious. What
should we try next?"
I had her wait while I retrieved some elbow and knee pads the set had
available. Then as we hooked up to two new harnesses, I said, "I think doggy
style has the least risk of tangling, but since missionary worked out, I think
cowgirl would be fine too."
"Oooo, yeah. Let's try that."
So Olive rode me like a cowgirl while I held onto her knees. When we
bounced off the bed, she insisted on trying to bounce us back up onto the bed
without uncoupling our loins. Eventually she succeeded and celebrated her
accomplishment with another orgasm.
We finished up our little adult adventure with a doggy style fuck. I was
thankful for the kneepads because we ended up bouncing off the bed and circling
the set a number of times before I finally came again, though not before giving
Olive another two cums.
We both had minor bruises from the ride, but neither of us regretted it.
As we were getting dressed, she said, "You know, if I ever write my
memoirs, this is getting a chapter all its own."
"Please don't," I pleaded. "Or at least wait til I'm dead and gone before
you publish."
"You're not going to die," she insisted. "I'm positive that you're going
to end up with your brain in a robot body someday."
That... hit a little close to home for me. I tried not to show a
reaction, but something must have leaked through my mask.
"Okay, okay," she said reassuringly. "How about if I keep you anonymous?"
"That would be much appreciated. I really don't like publicity for
myself."
"Boy are you in the wrong business."
"My business is computers and technology. This movie is just a one-time
hobby."
She gave a dismissive and unladylike snort. "Hollywood is an addiction
all its own. Once you've gotten a taste, you'll always come back."
Rather than insult her chosen profession, I ignored the falsehood.
I drove her home, gave her a good night kiss and went home to sleep in my
own bed. Alpha gave me a quick check-up, as she always does after I sleep with
an unmonitored woman. She was a bit worried about my bruising and wanted to fix
it. They really weren't that bad, so I refused, which led to another discussion
where I tried to explain to Alpha why humans often enjoy pastimes which damage
us physically in small ways.
She has a great deal of difficulty understanding why we do things like
that. A reasonable amount of risk for productive or otherwise beneficial results
was something she could understand. Bruising our bodies, potentially risking
serious injury to play a game or have sex in a new and interesting way? She
just couldn't wrap her mind around it. Even suggesting that the benefit was
psychological didn't help, since there are plenty of psychologically beneficial
activities which don't involve such risks.
Alpha has developed hugely when it comes to predicting human behavior,
likes and dislikes, most especially when it comes to yours truly, but at the
same time that does not mean that she understands why. Maybe twenty percent of
human recreational pastimes are mysteries to her.
Filming continued and went relatively smoothly most of the time. I slept
with Olive twice more while she was in Texas, then I discovered she was still
married. She said she understood my concerns, and we broke it off. We're still
friendly when our paths cross.
One of the most annoying things about my relationship with Olive came
months later when I found out that she was bi-sexual. Sure, her TV character is
bi, but I never thought she actually was. I probably could have arranged a
threesome with her back then but didn't because I didn't know she would be open
to the idea. I'm still kicking myself over that.
Since Olive, I've slept with two different actresses, though neither
encounter was part of this story. Hopefully I'll get to them in later chapters.
Olive was far from the last person I had sex with in the harnesses.
Jennifer giggled like a crazy person all throughout our harnessed hookup. Jane
thought it was the greatest thing since sliced bread. In all, about three-
fourths of my women tried it with me at least once and most enjoyed it, though
only a couple were eager to try it again.
The final budget for the movie came in at $29 million. Without Alpha, I'm
sure it would have topped $50 million, possibly even $100 million.
That actually raises another question we've yet to answer properly: How
much is Alpha's time worth? Depending how we rate that, it may well have cost
$200 million to make. Fortunately we didn't have to pay her a wage, though I
have told her multiple times that I consider a minimum of half my money to be
hers, and even then that would still be severely underpaying her.
Still that $29 million required some shifting of resources on my part,
especially since we hadn't yet seen much money from the hair growth formula or
any of our other big-money projects -- that income would start coming a year
later. Since most of my liquid assets were needed elsewhere, we took out a $10
million loan against future earnings.
Some readers may ask why didn't we just play the market to get the money?
The market was too unhealthy to support Alpha's aggressive trading style. Yes,
we'd get the money, but it had a decent chance of causing damage to market
stability. (The thing is, it's not just her trades. Some other traders picked
up on our success years ago and will follow any moves we make in the market,
magnifying our impact.) Still, we were debt-free again in less than a year.
We debuted the movie at the Sundance Film Festival the following January.
(I wanted to show it at the Fantastic Fest in September here in Texas, but the
final cut wasn't ready in time.) Our retro-sci-fi epic lacked the artistic
drama needed to win any awards, but we got lots of positive buzz and easily
signed a good distributor. Working with the distributor, we even set up a San
Diego ComicCon booth and Q&A session. (Maybe at some point, I'll tell the story
of taking my comic book and cartoon women to ComicCon, a trip equal parts
nightmare and fun.)
The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress was released in November with pretty decent
advertising for an "indie" film; it hit theaters just over two years after we
bought the rights to it. The U.S. box office topped $70 million, but not by
much. International box office added almost another $100 million. It was re-
released the following Spring because... well, I don't want to get too far ahead
of myself and that's a few chapters away... and we expect decent home video and
broadcast rights as time goes by.
Even with the money being shared by the distributor, theaters and the
points due to Jennifer and a few of the actors, we still easily made a profit.
(I know it's practically forbidden to admit that in Hollywood, with their
'creative accounting' practices, but we did. So there.)
It received pretty good reviews with a Rotten Tomatoes score of 84%, and
we won a few technical awards (including one Oscar). We even got a thumbs-up
from Harlan Ellison, which somehow excited me a lot more than a special effects
Oscar.
Jennifer earned over $1 million from her base pay plus a half-percent of
the gross, and she set herself up as a producer for Hollywood newcomers and up-
and-comers.
The AARD Environment Generation System was a decent success in that we
were able to sell a couple hundred units worldwide over the next few years at
half a million dollars a unit. You may ask, what was the first movie to come
out using the system? Even before TMIAHM? A porno called The Nymphomania of
Queen Georgia. Porn companies were early adopters of the system, and eventually
most major companies bought a system and used it for dozens or even hundreds of
movies.
And most importantly, Alpha was happy with the results, finally getting a
well-done and positive portrayal of an AI. (Now she wants to start working on
some Asimov-based movies and possibly the Ender's Game series.)
* * *
AUTHOR'S POSTSCRIPT NOTES: 'Insider Girl' is no relation to 'Inside Girl' which
is apparently a series of tweeny-girl books that I didn't even know existed
until midway through writing this chapter.
Also note that while the Fort Worth Parade of Lights is real, I have never
seen it and am assuming it is just a normal parade, set in the evening.
<1st attachment end>
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