After my Monday morning class, I returned to my grad student's cubicle in Hertz Hall to compile some notes. There was a sticky note from Dr. Keller's secretary asking me to pop in for a brief visit with Keller at my convenience.
I walked up the stairs to Keller's office. His gatekeeper secretary smiled nicely and announced me over the telephone. "Go right on in, Mr. Connors."
I still knocked and waited for Dr. Keller to invite me in. Don't tick off your thesis chairman and the department head.
"Tom, come in. I won't keep you long. "
I'm looking to try and schedule your thesis meeting with the committee, Dr. Geiler-Callaghan, and Dr. Klein in three to four weeks. Do you think you and Dr. Geiler-Callaghan be ready to discuss your master's thesis and doctoral project that quickly?"
I felt quite certain he had already received confirmation from Dr. Klein that he and Dr. Geiler-Callaghan would be there. Kim and I had already been working diligently, exchanging relevant information to familiarize each other with our respective disciplines, so there was no doubt in my mind we were already prepared.
"I can't speak for Dr. Geiler-Callaghan, but I don't see why not. We've been exchanging information and ideas two or three times weekly either in person or via email, and we've both got some ideas about a project timeline and benchmarks."
"Excellent! I'll go ahead and talk with Klein about some possible dates. Then we'll meet with you to finalize the date and time. In the meantime, Tom, keep doing exactly what you and Dr. Geiler-Callaghan have been doing. Collaboration will assure a positive outcome."
If only he knew how Kim and I had been collaborating, I thought to myself as I left his office.
Tuesday afternoon I arrived a few minutes before two o'clock at Jamie's laboratory. Since there were several extra spaces in the employee parking lot, I drove in through the open gate and parked. Then I walked to the front public entry door and went in.
The young receptionist recognized me. "Everyone else is back in the lunch room getting coffee before your meeting. Go right on back, please," she said cheerily.
I walked in the lunch room and recognized everyone except one woman who was talking with Jamie. I presumed that was Major Robyn Broadsword. Jamie looked up and saw me come in. She motioned for me to join her.
"Tom, I'd like to introduce you to Dr. Robyn Broadsword. Robyn is an Army Major and my primary contact with the Department of Defense."
She extended her hand and said, "Jamie speaks very highly of you, Tom. It's a pleasure to finally meet you."
"How do you do, Major. Or, should I address you as 'doctor?'"
"'Robyn' will do just fine," she said with a very warm smile. Her grip was firm but comfortable and warm.
Major/doctor Robyn Broadsword would never be a runway model, though judging from her stocky build and grip, she very likely took good care of her body. My first impression of her appearance, though, was that she could be Emily's better-dressed sister. She was like Emily, sexy but in a plain way. Stealth sex with plenty of confidence in herself.
She wore little or no makeup, and she had a plain, rather square face with wide-set, downturned eyes. Her nose was relatively flat with slightly flared nostrils, and she had thin lips on her wide, Julia Roberts-like mouth, and she seemed to be perpetually smiling. Even without makeup, her skin was perfect, lightly tanned and blemish free. Her hair was darkish brown, straight, collar length, and definitely unstyled. She was about the same height as Jamie.
Just before two o'clock, Jamie announced, "Could I have your attention, please? Let's move into the conference room and begin our meeting."
Once we were all seated around the conference table, Jamie used the computer to project some video slides supplementing her efficiently brief and clear explanation of the design, fabrication, and functioning of the most recent iteration of the phallus.
She had a functioning prototype mounted on a stand. She connected it to a computer which projected sensor output information on a screen. Then she slid the display phallus to Robyn and asked her to manually masturbate it. Robyn participated with no hesitation, but she displayed complete surprise when the phallus became fully erect and hard in her hand. Jamie directed Robyn's attention to the phallus's electrical impulses projected on the screen while she stroked it.
After explaining and demonstrating the phallus basic operation for Robyn, Jamie asked Lorraine and Emily to make their presentations about the phallus. Thereafter, Kim and Marta would make their presentations. She urged the four of them to comment on the features and functions needing improvement for utility, wear comfort, and sexual satisfaction.
Following the four presentations, Jamie briefly explained our intentions to address the color and temperature issue. Amanda acknowledged not yet finding an acceptable and workable way to have the user-detachable phallus also pass bodily fluids. Lorraine, Amanda, Emily, and I explained our proposal for the pubic hair overlay.
Kim and Marta's presentations echoed the observations Lorraine and Emily had offered, though Kim said she did not find depilation to be objectionable.
Jamie invited Robyn to address the group.
Robyn had paid very close attention to the preceding discussions. She very briefly explained her medical training and experience both in and out of the Army. She also gave a quick overview of DoD's recognition of the value of prosthetics to the mental health of military veterans.
She speculated that a significant number of the PTSD-related medical discharges and worse, suicides, had some association with loss of sexual function. Her speculation had some basis in the DoD's own psychiatric evaluations of patients.
She explained being astonished by the amount and quality of research and work our ad hoc group had successfully completed on a prosthetic phallus in a relatively short time, particularly since it was only part-time for all of us.
Robyn surprised us when she candidly admitted that DoD had done remarkably little in trying to develop a prosthetic phallus to provide restored sexual function. She explained that DoD's direction was to perfect the penile transplant process instead. It would be transplant or nothing at all.
With remarkable candor Robyn openly disagreed with that, explaining that unlike more conventional transplants, penile transplants were far more complicated and fraught with frequent recipient rejections. Her concern was that a transplant failure or rejection would aggravate deteriorating behavioral conditions. She hoped the prosthetic phallus would at least be an interim measure to provide positive reinforcement toward restoring the patient's mental health until medical science made the penile transplants consistently reliable and successful. Some reasonable hope, she said, was better than dashing all hope.
She pointedly commended Jamie's meticulous research into making sure that all prosthetic devices were properly designed, sized, and fitted to each individual client rather than trying to come up with one-size-fits-all solutions. Robyn's own followup research on Jamie's clients had convinced her that Jamie's properly fit prosthetics played as much a role in a client's successful mental rehabilitation as in his physical restoration.
With obvious disappointment and resignation, Robyn also explained that part of the reason DoD had not pursued the prosthetic phallus as even an interim pre-transplant measure was because there was political and social opposition that refused to finance the necessary research and development. That, she said, was why she was so happy to see our work reach a point of a viable prototype. Our prototype, even with its limited live testing, would pressure the numerous naysayers inside DoD to explain to the pols how DoD's labs could not produce positive results when a small, privately funded lab could using donated NASA surplus material and lunch money.
Heads nodded around Jamie's conference room table.
Robyn then revealed that she had been working privately with a DoD psychiatrist to research the therapeutic value of sexual function restoration in helping military men and women cope with PTSD. To not draw any attention to their own unofficial research, they simply referred to it with the acronym HOST which stood for Hyperintensive Orgasm Stimulation Therapy.
Robyn went on to explain their operating theory is that all persons are born with a range of sexual functions and behaviors which are basically lodged in the brain during its development but which can vary throughout their lives depending on a variety of factors. It was the variability of those factors, she theorized, that might cause a person's sexual activity and identity to influence the person's development in other areas such as health, education, and sociability.
Then Robyn dropped a bombshell. She said that their admittedly limited research suggested there may be people whose brain had developed in a way that causes them, even empowers them, to generate hyperintensive orgasms in their sexual partners. In turn, these hyperintensive orgasms appeared to result in some unexpected but definitely pro-social behaviors including reduced anger flare-ups. She quickly added, however, that they had no scientific evidence to support that, only anecdotal accounts.
She emphasized, though, that the little information they had strongly supported further research into a theory that such intense orgasms could stimulate a wide range of brain functions that might have been dormant to that point. One such possible stimulation was a reinvigoration of the brain's control over the body's immune system and the subsequent restoration of bodily functions and organs damaged by traumatic and emotional incidents.
We had all been paying polite attention to Robyn's presentation, but with her unexpected revelation, we all looked at her with an intensity she instantly picked up on.
"What?" she said. "Did I say something wrong?"
There was a brief silence that seemed it would last forever. Then Marta and Jamie locked eyes. Marta's head nod toward the door prompted Jamie to say, "Robyn, could I speak with you briefly outside?"
Without waiting for an answer, Jamie got up from the table and opened the conference room door, waiting for Robyn to exit with her.
The door closed behind them, but less than a minute later, Jamie reentered the conference room looking very serious.
